Additional tweaks for US Basel III implementation

From Bank Credit News, Alexandra Villarreal reports:

Banking regulators, including the OCC, Federal Reserve and FDIC, approved a revised final rule on regulatory capital designed to bolster the U.S. financial system and reduce the regulatory burden on community banks.

Aw well, some people in Basel may have had other ideas on bolstering and reducing the regulatory burden. The idea was to steer clear from a principles based approach, but it is what it is.

Banks not subject to advanced approaches capital rules can choose to omit most amounts reported as AOCI in the calculation of their capital.

This we already knew. However, this is useful if the Leverage Ratio assumes Tier 1 as the main driver.

Additionally, under the rule, small depository holding companies with less than $15 billion in assets, as well as certain mutual holding firms, will be permitted to continue to count trust-preferred securities issued before May 19, 2010, as Tier 1 capital.