81_FR_38745 81 FR 38631 - Capital Requirements for Supervised Institutions Significantly Engaged in Insurance Activities

81 FR 38631 - Capital Requirements for Supervised Institutions Significantly Engaged in Insurance Activities

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 114 (June 14, 2016)

Page Range38631-38637
FR Document2016-14004

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is inviting comment on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) regarding approaches to regulatory capital requirements for depository institution holding companies significantly engaged in insurance activities (insurance depository institution holding companies), and nonbank financial companies that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC or Council) has determined will be supervised by the Board and that have significant insurance activities (systemically important insurance companies). The Board is inviting comment on two approaches to consolidated capital requirements for these institutions: An approach that uses existing legal entity capital requirements as building blocks for insurance depository institution holding companies and a simple consolidated approach for systemically important insurance companies.

Federal Register, Volume 81 Issue 114 (Tuesday, June 14, 2016)
[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 114 (Tuesday, June 14, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 38631-38637]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-14004]


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FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

12 CFR Chapter II

[Docket No. R-1539]
RIN 7100 AE 53


Capital Requirements for Supervised Institutions Significantly 
Engaged in Insurance Activities

AGENCY: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) 
is inviting comment on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) 
regarding approaches to regulatory capital requirements for depository 
institution holding companies significantly engaged in insurance 
activities (insurance depository institution holding companies), and 
nonbank financial companies that the Financial Stability Oversight 
Council (FSOC or Council) has determined will be supervised by the 
Board and that have significant insurance activities (systemically 
important insurance companies). The Board is inviting comment on two 
approaches to consolidated capital requirements for these institutions: 
An approach that uses existing legal entity capital requirements as 
building blocks for insurance depository institution holding companies 
and a simple consolidated approach for systemically important insurance 
companies.

DATES: Comments must be received no later than August 17, 2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. R-1539; 
RIN 7100 AE 53), by any of the following methods:
     Agency Web site: http://www.federalreserve.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments at http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/foia/ProposedRegs.cfm.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Email: [email protected]. Include Docket 
No. R-1539; RIN 7100 AE 53) in the subject line of the message.
     Fax: (202) 452-3819 or (202) 452-3102.
     Mail: Robert deV. Frierson, Secretary, Board of Governors 
of the Federal Reserve System, 20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW., 
Washington, DC 20551.

All public comments will be made available on the Board's Web site at 
http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/foia/ProposedRegs.cfm as 
submitted, unless modified for technical reasons. Accordingly, your 
comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact 
information. Public comments may also be viewed electronically or in 
paper form in Room 3515, 1801 K Street NW., (between 18th and 19th 
Streets NW.), Washington, DC 20006 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on 
weekdays. For security reasons, the Board requires that visitors make 
an appointment to inspect comments. You may do so by calling (202) 452-
3684. Upon arrival, visitors will be required to present valid 
government-issued photo identification and to submit to security 
screening in order to inspect and photocopy comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas Sullivan, Associate Director, 
(202) 475-7656, Linda Duzick, Manager, (202) 728-5881, or Suyash 
Paliwal, Senior Insurance Policy Analyst, (202) 974-7033, Division of 
Banking Supervision and Regulation; or Laurie Schaffer, Associate 
General Counsel, (202) 452-2272, Benjamin W. McDonough, Special 
Counsel, (202) 452-2036; Tate Wilson, Counsel, (202) 452-369; David 
Alexander, Counsel, (202) 452-2877; or Mary Watkins, Attorney (202) 
452-3722, Legal Division.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction

A. Background

    Robust capital is an important safeguard to protect the safety and 
soundness of financial institutions; enhance the resilience of 
financial institutions to position them to better navigate periods of 
financial or economic stress; and mitigate threats to financial 
stability that might be posed by the activities, material financial 
distress, or failure of financial institutions. To help achieve these 
benefits, various provisions of Federal law require the Board and other 
Federal banking agencies to establish minimum capital standards for 
holding companies that own insured depository institutions (IDIs) and 
for financial firms that are designated by the FSOC for supervision by 
the Board. The capital standards developed by the Board take into 
account the overall risk profile and the size, scope, and complexity of 
the operations of the institution. Further, the law allows the Board to 
tailor the minimum capital requirements applicable to companies that 
both own an IDI and significantly engage in insurance activities as 
well as for systemically important insurance companies.
    The Board's supervisory objectives in setting capital requirements 
for the consolidated institution focus on the safety and soundness of 
the company and its IDI and on enhancing financial stability, and 
complement the primary mission of state legal entity insurance 
supervisors, which tends to focus on the protection of 
policyholders.\1\ To achieve these objectives, the Board seeks comment 
on several approaches to designing a regulatory capital framework for 
supervised institutions significantly engaged in insurance activities 
that is intended to ensure that the institution has sufficient capital, 
commensurate with its overall institution-wide risk profile (1) to 
absorb losses and continue operations as a going concern throughout 
times of economic, financial, and insurance-related stress (e.g., 
morbidity, mortality, longevity, natural and man-made catastrophes); 
(2) to serve as a source of strength to any subsidiary depository 
institutions; \2\ and (3) to substantially mitigate any threats to 
financial stability that the institution might pose.
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    \1\ For discussion regarding state supervision of insurance, 
see, e.g., Financial Stability Oversight Council, Basis of the 
Financial Stability Oversight Council's Final Determination 
Regarding American International Group, Inc. (July 8, 2013), 
available at https://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/designations/Documents/Basis%20of%20Final%20Determination%20Regarding%20American%20International%20Group,%20Inc.pdf; Financial Stability Oversight Council, 
Basis of the Financial Stability Oversight Council's Final 
Determination Regarding Prudential Financial, Inc. (Sept. 19, 2013), 
available at https://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/designations/Documents/Prudential%20Financial%20Inc.pdf.
    \2\ 12 U.S.C. 1831o-1. See also, 12 U.S.C. 1844 and Section 706, 
Division O, of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, Public Law 
114-113, 129 Stat. 2242 (2015).
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B. The Board's Consolidated Supervision of Systemically Important 
Insurance Companies and Insurance Depository Institution Holding 
Companies

    This ANPR seeks comment on proposed approaches to regulatory 
capital requirements that are tailored to the risks of supervised 
insurance institutions, including both insurance depository institution 
holding companies and systemically important insurance companies.
    The Board has broad authority to establish regulatory capital 
standards for

[[Page 38632]]

savings and loan holding companies (SLHCs) and bank holding companies 
(BHCs) \3\ under the Home Owners' Loan Act (HOLA) and Bank Holding 
Company Act, respectively.\4\ The Board's supervisory objectives for 
insurance depository institution holding companies include ensuring the 
safe and sound operation of the consolidated firms and subsidiary IDIs, 
and ensuring that holding companies can serve as a source of strength 
for any subsidiary IDIs.\5\ In addition, certain nonbank financial 
companies with significant insurance activities have been designated by 
the Council pursuant to section 113 of the Dodd-Frank Act \6\ to be 
supervised by the Board and made subject to enhanced prudential 
standards. For these systemically important insurance companies, the 
Board is required under section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act to establish 
enhanced prudential standards, including more stringent risk-based and 
leverage capital requirements, as well as stress tests.\7\
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    \3\ BHCs that are financial holding companies may engage in 
insurance underwriting activities. 12 U.S.C. 1844(k).
    \4\ 12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.; 12 U.S.C. 1467a(g).
    \5\ 12 U.S.C. 1831o-1. See also 12 U.S.C. 1467a(g)(5).
    \6\ 12 U.S.C. 5323; see also Basis of the Financial Stability 
Oversight Council's Final Determination Regarding American 
International Group, Inc. (July 8, 2013), available at http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/designations/Documents/Basis%20of%20Final%20Determination%20Regarding%20American%20International%20Group,%20Inc.pdf; Basis for the Financial Stability Oversight 
Council's Final Determination Regarding Prudential Financial, Inc. 
(Sept. 19, 2013), available at http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/designations/Documents/Prudential%20Financial%20Inc.pdf.
    \7\ 12 U.S.C. 5365. Section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act would also 
direct the Board to establish consolidated capital requirements and 
administer stress test for any insurance depository institution 
holding companies that are BHCs with at least $50 billion in total 
consolidated assets. Presently, there are no BHCs that are also 
insurance depository institution holding companies.
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    With respect to both insurance depository institution holding 
companies and systemically important insurance companies, the Board 
must establish minimum leverage capital requirements and minimum risk-
based capital requirements that apply (1) on a consolidated basis, and 
(2) are at least as stringent as the generally applicable capital 
requirements that applied to IDIs at the time the Dodd-Frank Act was 
adopted, as well as current generally applicable IDI capital 
requirements.\8\ The Dodd-Frank Act has been amended to allow the Board 
to tailor these minimum capital requirements as they would apply to 
persons regulated by state or foreign insurance regulators.\9\
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    \8\ 12 U.S.C. 5371.
    \9\ 12 U.S.C. 5371(c)(1).
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    The Board currently supervises twelve insurance depository 
institution holding companies and two systemically important insurance 
companies. Collectively, these firms have approximately $2 trillion in 
assets and represent approximately one-quarter of the assets of the 
U.S. insurance industry. These institutions range in size from 
approximately $3 billion in total assets to about $700 billion in total 
assets, and engage in a wide variety of insurance and non-insurance 
activities. Some of the firms operate exclusively in the United States, 
and some have material international operations. These institutions 
have a variety of ownership structures, including stock and mutual 
forms of ownership. Some of these institutions prepare financial 
statements according to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles 
(U.S. GAAP), and some do not, preparing financial statements only 
according to U.S. Statutory Accounting Principles (SAP) filed with 
their relevant state insurance regulators. The insurance depository 
institution holding companies tend to have simpler structures, often 
have an operating company, rather than a holding company, as the top-
tier parent, and have a relatively greater U.S. focus in their 
operations. By contrast, the systemically important insurance companies 
are relatively larger financial institutions with substantial 
international operations, comparatively complex organizational 
structures relative to other insurance companies, and non-insurance as 
well as insurance activities.
    The Board aims to develop regulatory capital frameworks for 
insurance depository institution holding companies and systemically 
important insurance companies that are consistent with the Board's 
supervisory objectives and appropriately tailored to the business of 
insurance. The Board is seeking comment on different frameworks that 
could be applied to insurance depository institution holding companies 
and systemically important insurance companies. As described below, 
this ANPR outlines two conceptual frameworks, one of which may be more 
appropriate for large, complex, systemically important institutions, 
while the other may be more appropriate for generally less complex 
firms such as the current population of insurance depository 
institution holding companies.
    The Board is also seeking comment on the criteria that should be 
used to determine which supervised institutions are subject to 
regulatory capital requirements that are tailored to the business of 
insurance. A supervised insurance institution could become subject to 
tailored regulatory capital rules based on the significance of these 
activities for the consolidated firm. The Board could apply a threshold 
based on a percentage of total consolidated assets attributable to 
insurance activities. For example, for purposes of determining whether 
an SLHC is significantly engaged in insurance activities and should be 
subject to capital requirements that are tailored to these risks, the 
Board is considering using the threshold in the Board's existing 
capital requirements (Regulation Q).\10\ Under this approach, an SLHC 
would be subject to the capital requirements as an insurance SLHC if it 
held 25 percent or more of its total consolidated assets in insurance 
underwriting subsidiaries (other than assets associated with insurance 
underwriting for credit risk).\11\ Further, the Board could define 
systemically important insurance companies as FSOC-designated nonbank 
financial companies with at least 40 percent of total consolidated 
assets related to insurance activities (as of the end of either of the 
two most recently completed fiscal years), or as otherwise ordered by 
the Board. These thresholds could reflect a level of insurance activity 
that is significant rather than incidental to the institution's 
activities.
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    \10\ 12 CFR 217.2.
    \11\ 12 CFR 217.2. Depository institution holding companies 
comprise BHCs as well as SLHCs. Presently, the population of Board-
supervised insurance depository institution holding companies 
includes 12 SLHCs significantly engaged in insurance activities. To 
the extent that a BHC met the definition of an insurance depository 
institution holding company, the Board would need to consider 
whether to exclude the BHC from the Board's Regulation Q and instead 
apply a different approach.
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    The Board invites comment on all aspects of these frameworks, 
including whether these frameworks are workable, would enhance the 
resilience of these institutions, and would reduce risks to financial 
stability. The Board also invites comment and suggestions on other 
frameworks that may better achieve these purposes. In addition, the 
Board invites comment on the costs and benefits of these and alternate 
approaches, and on the various advantages and difficulties of each 
approach. To help the Board address specific issues raised by the 
regulatory capital frameworks discussed below, the Board also invites 
comment on the

[[Page 38633]]

specific questions listed throughout this notice.

II. Consolidated Capital Frameworks for Supervised Institutions 
Significantly Engaged in Insurance Activities: Two Options

    In developing and evaluating potential capital frameworks, the 
Board relied on its experience in supervision of financial firms and 
with the development and application of capital standards through 
normal and stressed periods; discussions with affected financial firms, 
including firms engaged in insurance activities; the purposes of and 
requirements in Federal law; and information and insights provided by 
other supervisors, including state insurance supervisors, among other 
things.
    Insurance supervisors, insurance companies and others have argued 
that because liability structures, asset classes, and asset-liability 
matching of insurance companies differ markedly from those of a typical 
BHC, the capital framework (or frameworks) should be tailored to the 
business mix and risk profile of insurance depository institution 
holding companies and systemically important insurance companies. They 
have also contended that leverage limits based on the ratio of equity 
to total assets, which are an important backstop in a banking 
regulatory capital framework, may have less value as a risk metric for 
supervised institutions significantly engaged in insurance activities 
because they do not address the different liability structure that is 
inherent to the insurance business. The Board has flexibility to 
develop leverage and risk-based capital requirements that are tailored 
to appropriately reflect the risks of supervised institutions 
significantly engaged in insurance activities.\12\
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    \12\ See Insurance Capital Standards Clarification Act of 2014, 
Public Law 113-279, 128 Stat. 3017 (2014).
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    At the same time, supervisors and commenters recognize that a 
capital framework also should take into account all material risk types 
(insurance and non-insurance) in these institutions. Capital standards 
that do not account for all types of material risks tend to be 
ineffective and incent riskier activity. In addition, to the greatest 
extent possible, the capital framework should take account of risks 
across the entire firm--in the holding company, in regulated 
subsidiaries, and in unregulated subsidiaries. The financial crisis 
demonstrated that risks of financial distress often spread across an 
organization from unregulated subsidiaries to regulated 
subsidiaries.\13\ Moreover, the framework should be as standardized as 
possible, rather than relying predominantly on a firm's internal 
capital models. Greater standardization will produce more consistent 
capital requirements, enhance comparability across firms, and promote 
greater transparency.\14\
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    \13\ For example, severe losses in non-insurance subsidiaries 
may undermine confidence in an entire insurance organization and 
contribute to a firm's inability to meet obligations. Board of 
Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Regulatory Reform, American 
International Group (AIG), Maiden Lane II and III, available at 
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/reform_aig.htm.
    \14\ Actuarial models, as opposed to asset risk-weighting 
models, are nonetheless important in setting insurance reserves.
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    The capital framework also should be based on U.S. regulatory and 
accounting standards and not foreign regulatory and accounting 
standards in order to best meet the needs of the U.S. financial system 
and insurance markets while reflecting the risks inherent in the 
business of insurance. The framework should strike a reasonable balance 
between simplicity and risk sensitivity. Achieving this balance will 
help ensure that risks are accurately captured while minimizing 
regulatory burden and increasing comparability and transparency across 
firms. The framework also should be executable in the short-to-medium 
term. Finally, the framework should contribute to the stability of the 
financial system and should serve as a good basis for a supervisory 
stress test regime to the extent these provisions apply to the 
regulated firm.
    The Board invites comment on the considerations that should guide 
the development of a regulatory capital framework for insurance 
depository institution holding companies and systemically important 
insurance companies.

    Question 1. Are these identified considerations appropriate? Are 
there other considerations the Board should incorporate in its 
evaluation of capital frameworks for supervised institutions 
significantly engaged in insurance activities?
    Question 2. Should the same capital framework apply to all 
supervised insurance institutions?
    Question 3. What criteria should the Board use to determine 
whether a supervised insurance institution should be subject to 
regulatory capital rules tailored to the business of insurance?
    Question 4. If multiple capital frameworks are used, what 
criteria should be used to determine whether a supervised insurance 
institution should be subject to each framework?
    Question 5. In addition to insurance underwriting activities, 
what other activities, if any, should be used to determine whether a 
supervised institution is significantly engaged in insurance 
activities and should be subject to regulatory capital requirements 
tailored to the business mix and risk profile of insurance?

    The remainder of this section will describe two potential 
regulatory capital frameworks for supervised institutions significantly 
engaged in insurance activities; discuss the strengths and weaknesses 
of each approach; and suggest ways in which each approach could be 
effectively applied. The Board invites comment on all aspects of each 
approach. The Board will then use these comments to develop a specific 
proposal, likely based on these two approaches, and invite public 
comment on that specific proposal.

A. Option 1: Building Block Approach

    The Board has traditionally set capital requirements for holding 
companies on a consolidated basis.\15\ Among other things, a 
consolidated capital standard deters firms from placing assets in a 
particular legal entity, where the assets may be subject to lower, or 
no, capital requirements. Many SLHCs that are supervised insurance 
institutions because they own depository institutions do not produce 
consolidated financial statements.\16\ This presents potential 
challenges to the development of consolidated capital requirements that 
would not impose undue burden on these institutions.
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    \15\ See 12 CFR part 217.
    \16\ Section 171(c)(3) of the Dodd-Frank Act, as amended, 
prohibits the Board from requiring, pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act 
or HOLA, supervised institutions that only prepare financial 
statements in accordance with SAP to prepare financial statements in 
accordance with U.S. GAAP. 12 U.S.C. 5371(c)(3)(A)-(B).
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    One approach that would accommodate this would aggregate capital 
resources and capital requirements across the different legal entities 
in the group to calculate combined qualifying and required capital. A 
firm's aggregate capital requirements generally would be the sum of the 
capital requirements at each subsidiary. This is a building block 
approach (BBA). The capital requirement for each regulated insurance or 
depository institution subsidiary would be based on the regulatory 
capital rules of that subsidiary's functional regulator--whether a 
state or foreign insurance regulator for insurance subsidiaries or a 
federal banking regulator for IDIs. The BBA would then build upon and 
aggregate legal entity (insurance, non-insurance financial, non-
financial, and holding company) qualifying capital

[[Page 38634]]

and required capital, subject to adjustments.
    Under this approach, the regulatory capital requirements for a 
regulated insurance underwriting firm would be determined by reference 
to the rules of the appropriate state or foreign insurance supervisor 
for the firm. The regulatory capital requirement for each IDI generally 
would be determined under the Board's Regulation Q or under other 
capital rules applicable to IDIs.\17\ The regulatory capital 
requirement for any other regulated non-insurance or unregulated 
subsidiary legal entity, such as a mid-tier holding company, would also 
be determined under the Board's Regulation Q.
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    \17\ 12 CFR part 217.
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    As discussed further below, BBA may require the use of several 
types of adjustments in the calculation of a firm's enterprise-wide 
capital requirement. Adjustments may be necessary to conform or 
standardize the accounting practices under SAP among U.S. 
jurisdictions, and between SAP and foreign jurisdictions. Similarly, 
adjustments may be necessary to eliminate inter-company transactions.
    Additionally, the BBA may require consideration of cross-
jurisdictional differences. As discussed below, this would be achieved 
through the use of scalars. Scalars may, for example, be appropriate to 
account for differences in stringency applied by different insurance 
supervisors, and to ensure adequate reflection of the safety and 
soundness and financial stability goals, as opposed to policyholder 
protection, that the Board is charged with achieving.
    The ratio of aggregate qualifying capital to aggregate required 
capital would represent capital adequacy at a consolidated level. 
Represented in an equation, the BBA could be summarized as follows:
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TP14JN16.000

    Question 6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of 
applying the BBA to the businesses and risks of supervised 
institutions significantly engaged in insurance activities?
    Question 7. What challenges and benefits do you foresee to the 
development, implementation, or application of the BBA? To what 
extent would the BBA utilize existing records, data requirements, 
and systems, and to what extent would the BBA require additional 
records, data, or systems? How readily could the BBA's calculations 
be performed across a supervised institution's subsidiaries and 
affiliates within and outside of the United States?
    Question 8. What scalars and adjustments are appropriate to 
implement the BBA, and make the BBA effective in helping to ensure 
resiliency of the firm and comparability among firms, while 
minimizing regulatory burden and incentives and opportunity to evade 
the requirements?
    Question 9. To what extent is the BBA prone to regulatory 
arbitrage?
    Question 10. Which jurisdictions or capital regimes would pose 
the greatest challenges to inclusion in the BBA?
    Question 11. How should the BBA apply to a supervised 
institution significantly engaged in insurance activity where the 
ultimate parent company is an insurer that is also regulated by a 
state insurance regulator? Are there other organizational structures 
that could present challenges?

    The key strengths of the BBA include the following: (1) It 
efficiently uses existing legal-entity-level regulatory capital 
frameworks; (2) it is an approach that could be developed and 
implemented expeditiously; (3) it would involve relatively low 
regulatory costs and burdens for the institutions; and (4) it would 
produce regulatory capital requirements that are tailored to the risks 
of each distinct jurisdiction and line of business of the institution.
    The key weaknesses of the BBA include: (1) At the top-tier level, 
it is an aggregated, but not a consolidated, capital framework; (2) it 
would not discourage regulatory arbitrage within an institution due to 
inconsistencies across jurisdictional capital requirements and also may 
be vulnerable to gaming through techniques such as double leverage 
(i.e., when an upstream entity issues debt to acquire an equity stake 
in a downstream entity); (3) it would need to account for inter-company 
transactions, which may result in extensive adjustments; (4) it would 
require the Board to determine scalars regarding a large number of 
state and foreign insurance regulatory capital regimes; and (5) it 
likely would require legal-entity-level stress tests, presenting 
challenges to appropriate reflection of diversification and inter-
company risk transfer mechanisms and other transactions.
    The strengths of the BBA would appear to be maximized and its 
weakness minimized were the BBA to be applied to insurance depository 
institution holding companies, which generally are less complex, less 
international, and not systemically important. In this context, 
incremental safety and soundness benefits would appear to be 
complemented by the lower compliance costs due to the smaller number of 
scalars involved. In particular, the BBA is standardized, executable, 
applies U.S.-based accounting principles for U.S. legal entities, 
accounts for material insurance risks, strikes a balance between risk-
sensitivity and simplicity, and is well-tailored to the business model 
and risks of insurance.\18\
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    \18\ In addition, the BBA could be implemented in a manner 
consistent with section 171(c)(3) of the Dodd-Frank Act.
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    For the systemically important insurance companies, the BBA may not 
capture the full set of risks these firms impose on the financial 
system without significant use of adjustments and scalars, thereby 
negating any potential burden reduction from the approach. These firms 
also tend to prepare financial statements under U.S. GAAP, thereby 
making a consolidated capital requirement less burdensome to compute. 
Accordingly, the BBA may not be appropriate for systemically important 
insurance companies.
    The Board continues to analyze whether the BBA is appropriate as a 
regulatory capital framework and whether it may be appropriate for all 
insurance depository institution holding companies or only a subset of 
these firms. Specifically, the Board is considering whether larger or 
more complex insurance depository institution holding companies should 
be subject to a regulatory capital framework other than the BBA.

    Question 12. Is the BBA an appropriate framework for insurance 
depository institution holding companies? How effective is the BBA 
at achieving the goal of ensuring the safety and soundness of an 
insurance depository institution holding company?
    Question 13. Would the BBA be appropriate for larger or more 
complex insurance companies that might in the future acquire a 
depository institution?

    Further, the Board seeks comment on the following key issues 
regarding the design and implementation of the BBA.

[[Page 38635]]

    Baseline capital requirements at the legal-entity level. The BBA 
framework would begin with the baseline capital requirements at each 
legal entity. For example, for state-regulated insurance entities, the 
BBA could use different triggering thresholds from the state risk-based 
capital framework (e.g., the Company Action Level, the Authorized 
Control Level), or some other level as the appropriate baseline capital 
requirement. For some regulated foreign insurance entities, the Board 
would need to decide whether the local minimum capital requirement, 
prescribed capital requirement, or some other requirement is the 
appropriate baseline. For subsidiary IDIs, the BBA could use the 
minimum common equity tier 1, tier 1, or total risk-based capital 
requirements under the standardized approach in the Board's Regulation 
Q, as well as the tier 1 leverage ratio. For unregulated subsidiaries, 
the BBA could use the risk-based capital or leverage requirements for 
depository institutions or some other, similarly stringent approach.

    Question 14. In applying the BBA, what baseline capital 
requirement should the Board use for insurance entities, banking 
entities, and unregulated entities?

    State-by-state and international variances in accounting or capital 
treatment for supervised institutions significantly engaged in 
insurance activities. The accounting practices for insurance companies 
can vary from state to state due to permitted and prescribed practices, 
and can result in significant differences in financial statements 
between similar entities filing SAP financial statements in different 
states. Regulators both within and outside of the U.S. have the 
authority to take actions with respect to insurance companies that may 
result in variances from standard accounting practices. The BBA would 
need to address international or state regulator approved variances in 
accounting or capital requirements for regulated insurance entities.

    Question 15. How should the BBA account for international or 
state regulator approved variances to accounting rules?
    Question 16. What are the challenges in using financial data 
under different accounting frameworks? What adjustments and/or 
eliminations should be made to ensure comparability when aggregating 
to an institution-wide level?
    Question 17. What approaches or strategies could the Board use 
to calibrate the various capital regimes without needing to make 
adjustments to the underlying accounting?

    Inter-company transactions. Any approach to regulatory capital for 
a supervised institution significantly engaged in insurance activities 
that aggregates qualifying capital and required capital at different 
legal entities within the institution should address inter-company 
transactions. Although inter-company transactions are naturally 
eliminated in consolidated accounting and regulatory frameworks, in an 
aggregated framework like the BBA, some inter-company transactions 
could generate redundancies in capital requirements, while others could 
reduce the required capital of a legal entity without reducing the 
overall risk profile of the institution. The BBA should include a 
treatment for inter-company transactions between different legal 
entities in the same supervised institution.

    Question 18. How should the BBA address inter-company 
transactions?

    Scalars. An important component of the BBA is that scalars would 
serve to bring jurisdictional capital frameworks to comparable levels 
of supervisory stringency. The BBA would need an appropriate scalar for 
each local regulatory capital regime, and therefore also would need a 
set of principles for determining those scalars. Any necessary scalars 
would be designed to reflect differences in supervisory purposes 
appropriate for insurance.

    Question 19. What criteria should be used to develop scalars for 
jurisdictions? What benefits or challenges are created through the 
use of scalars?

    Consolidation of qualifying capital. Under one version of a BBA 
framework, an insurance depository institution holding company or 
systemically important insurance company generally would determine its 
aggregate qualifying capital position by summing the qualifying capital 
position at each of its legal entities. A weakness of this approach is 
that it could enable the supervised institution to engage in 
substantial double leverage--that is, the institution's top-tier legal 
entity could fund its equity investments in its subsidiaries by 
substantial borrowings. Such an institution could have substantial 
qualifying capital positions at each of its major subsidiaries (and 
thus a robust BBA capital ratio) but could have a weak consolidated 
capital position.
    To address this limitation of a simple BBA, the Board is 
considering adopting a version of the BBA that would determine an 
institution's aggregate qualifying capital position on a uniform, 
consolidated basis. Under such an approach, the BBA would continue to 
draw upon capital requirements set by the local regulators of each 
legal entity, but would use a single definition of qualifying capital 
for supervised institutions and would apply that definition to the 
institution on a fully consolidated basis. To implement this version of 
the BBA, the Board would need to develop a definition of consolidated 
regulatory capital for supervised institutions significantly engaged in 
insurance activities, including rules to address minority interests.

    Question 20. What are the costs and benefits of a uniform, 
consolidated definition of qualifying capital in the BBA?
    Question 21. If the Board were to adopt a version of the BBA 
that employs a uniform, consolidated definition of qualifying 
capital, what criteria should the Board consider? What elements 
should be treated as qualifying capital under the BBA?
    Question 22. Should the Board categorize qualifying capital into 
multiple tiers, such as the approach used in the Board's Regulation 
Q? If so, what factors should the Board consider in determining 
tiers of qualifying capital for supervised institutions 
significantly engaged in insurance activities under the BBA?

B. Option 2: Consolidated Approach

    The Board is also considering a consolidated approach (CA) to 
capital with risk segments and factors appropriate for supervised 
insurance institutions.
    The CA is a proposed capital framework for supervised institutions 
significantly engaged in insurance activities that would categorize 
insurance liabilities, assets, and certain other exposures into risk 
segments; determine consolidated required capital by applying risk 
factors to the amounts in each segment; define qualifying capital for 
the consolidated firm; and then compare consolidated qualifying capital 
to consolidated required capital. Unlike the BBA, which fundamentally 
aggregates legal-entity-level qualifying capital and required capital, 
the CA would take a fully consolidated approach to qualifying capital 
and required capital. As distinguished from the Board's consolidated 
capital requirements for bank holding companies, the CA would use risk 
weights and risk factors that are appropriate for the longer-term 
nature of most insurance liabilities.
    The foundation of the CA, for systemically important insurance 
companies, would be consolidated financial information based on U.S. 
GAAP, with adjustments for regulatory purposes. Application of the CA 
to insurance depository institution holding companies that do not file 
U.S. GAAP financial statements would require the development of a 
consolidated approach based on SAP. Initially, the CA could be

[[Page 38636]]

simple in design, with broad risk segmentation, but could evolve over 
time to have an increasingly granular segmentation approach with 
greater risk sensitivity. Represented as an equation, the CA could be 
summarized as follows:
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TP14JN16.001

    Question 23. What are the advantages and disadvantages of 
applying the CA to the businesses and risks of supervised 
institutions significantly engaged in insurance activities?
    Question 24. What are the likely challenges and benefits to the 
development, implementation, and application of the CA? To what 
extent could the CA efficiently use existing records, data 
requirements, and systems, and to what extent would the CA require 
additional records, data, or systems?
    Question 25. To what extent would the CA be prone to regulatory 
arbitrage?

    The CA has strengths and weaknesses as a regulatory capital 
framework. The key strengths of the CA include the following: (1) It 
has a simple and transparent factor-based design; (2) it covers all 
material risks of supervised institutions significantly engaged in 
insurance activities; (3) it is a fully consolidated framework that has 
the potential to reduce regulatory arbitrage opportunities and the risk 
of double leverage; (4) it would be relatively expeditious for the 
Board to develop and for institutions to implement, particularly in 
light of its broad risk segmentation as implemented initially; and (5) 
it would provide a solid basis upon which to build consolidated 
supervisory stress tests of capital adequacy for institutions subject 
to stress testing requirements.
    The key weaknesses of the CA include the following: (1) The 
initially simple design of the CA would result in relatively crude risk 
segments and thus limited risk sensitivity, and (2) substantial 
analysis would be needed to design a set of risk factors for all the 
major segments of assets and insurance liabilities of supervised 
institutions significantly engaged in insurance activities. In 
addition, a separate SAP-based version of the CA would need to be 
developed for the insurance depository institution holding company 
population if CA were ever applied to an insurance depository 
institution holding company that only uses SAP.
    Based on the Board's initial analysis of the CA's strengths and 
weaknesses and comparing the CA against the considerations set forth 
above, it appears that the CA may be an appropriate regulatory capital 
framework for systemically important insurance companies. The CA, as a 
consolidated capital framework, would reduce the opportunity for 
regulatory arbitrage and the potential for double leverage. The CA also 
would more easily enable supervisory stress testing and other 
macroprudential features for systemically important insurance 
companies.
    The advantages of the CA are most salient for systemically 
important insurance companies that, by definition, are large, and 
internally and externally complex institutions. For insurance 
depository institution holding companies, which generally are smaller 
and less complex, these benefits may be outweighed by the additional 
implementation costs.

    Question 26. Is the CA an appropriate framework to be applied to 
systemically important insurance companies? What are the key 
challenges to applying the CA to systemically important insurance 
companies? How effective would the CA be at achieving the goals of 
ensuring the safety and soundness of a systemically important 
insurance company as well as minimizing the risk of a systemically 
important insurance company's failure or financial distress on 
financial stability?
    Question 27. What should the Board consider in determining more 
stringent capital requirements to address systemic risk? Should 
these requirements be reflected through qualifying capital, required 
capital, or both?

    Further, the Board seeks comment on the following key issues 
regarding the design and implementation of the CA.
    Definition of qualifying capital. Implementation of the CA would 
require the development of a uniform, consolidated definition of 
qualifying capital that is appropriate for all institutions subject to 
the CA.

    Question 28. What should the Board consider in developing a 
definition of qualifying capital under the CA? What elements should 
be treated as qualifying capital under the CA?
    Question 29. For purposes of the CA, should the Board categorize 
qualifying capital into multiple tiers? What criteria should the 
Board consider in determining tiers of qualifying capital for 
supervised institutions significantly engaged in insurance 
activities under the CA?

    Segmentation of exposures. Implementing the CA would require a 
framework for segmenting or disaggregating balance-sheet assets, 
balance-sheet insurance liabilities, and certain off-balance-sheet 
exposures. Appropriate segmentation would be important to ensure that 
similar risks face broadly similar capital requirements and that the 
capital regime produces an appropriate degree of risk sensitivity while 
minimizing the opportunities for regulatory arbitrage. This 
segmentation process would account for differences among insurance 
risks as well as between insurance risks and banking and other non-
insurance, financial risks. While the initial version of the CA likely 
would have broad risk segments, the CA could evolve over time to become 
more risk sensitive. One option for implementing the CA for 
systemically important insurance companies would be to use the 
segmentation framework in the Board's proposed Consolidated Financial 
Statements for Insurance Systemically Important Financial 
Institutions.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \19\ 81 FR 24097 (Apr. 25, 2016).

    Question 30. What risk segmentation should be used in the CA? 
What criteria should the Board consider in determining the risk 
segments? What criteria should the Board consider in determining how 
granular or risk sensitive the segmentation should be?
    Question 31. What challenges does U.S. GAAP present as a basis 
for segmentation in the CA?
    Question 32. What are the pros and cons of using the risk 
segmentation framework in the proposed Consolidated Financial 
Statements for Insurance Systemically Important Financial 
Institutions as the basis of risk segmentation for the CA?

    Exposure amounts. The CA would need to identify the exposure 
amounts of the various kinds of balance-sheet assets, balance-sheet 
insurance liabilities, and off-balance-sheet exposures of an 
institution. Although in many cases, the reported amount of a 
particular exposure may be appropriate for purposes of the CA, in other 
cases the financial information of an institution may require 
adjustments. For example, adjusting insurance liabilities may be 
necessary in order to include additional, relevant information, such as 
current assumptions, or to better match the valuation of related 
assets. Further, the CA would require the determination of the 
appropriate exposure amounts for derivatives and other off-balance-
sheet items in order to accurately reflect the risk exposure in 
determining required capital.


[[Page 38637]]


    Question 33. How should the CA reflect off-balance-sheet 
exposures?
    Question 34. Under what circumstances should U.S. GAAP be used 
or adjusted to determine the exposure amount of insurance 
liabilities under the CA?

    Factors. The CA would involve a set of Board-determined factors to 
be applied to the exposure amounts of assets, insurance liabilities, 
and off-balance-sheet items in each risk segment. The factor for each 
risk segment would reflect the riskiness of the segment and the capital 
required to support that risk. Because of the different liability 
structures between insurance companies and banks, some of the 
applicable insurance risk factors may differ from the analogous risk 
factors that apply to banks.

    Question 35. What considerations should the Board apply in 
determining the various factors to be applied to the amounts in the 
risk segments in the CA?
    Question 36. What challenges are there in determining risk 
factors for global risks?

    Minimum ratio. The CA would require the establishment of a minimum 
ratio of consolidated qualifying capital to consolidated factor-
weighted exposures in the CA. In addition, one or more definitions of 
capital adequacy (e.g., ``well capitalized'' or ``adequately 
capitalized'') would be needed for early remediation and other 
supervisory purposes.
    Question 37. What criteria should the Board consider in 
developing the minimum capital ratio under the CA and definitions of 
a ``well-capitalized'' or ``adequately capitalized'' insurance 
institution?

C. Other Assessed Frameworks

    In developing the two general approaches discussed here, the Board 
considered a number of other potential regulatory capital frameworks 
that did not appear to meet the Board's supervisory objectives for 
supervised institutions significantly engaged in insurance activities. 
For example, consideration was given to applying a risk-based capital 
rule that is based solely on the Board's existing capital requirements 
for banking organizations (Regulation Q) to supervised institutions 
significantly engaged in insurance activities. Such an approach would 
not recognize the unique risks, regulation, and balance sheet 
composition of insurance firms. Although bank-like capital requirements 
may be appropriate for exposures that a supervised institution 
significantly engaged in insurance activities holds in a non-insurance 
subsidiary, an approach based solely on the Board's Regulation Q would 
not capture significant insurance risks. The Board is not aware of any 
major country that imposes bank capital requirements on insurance 
firms.
    The Board also reviewed an approach that entirely excluded 
insurance subsidiaries and applied capital requirements only to the 
non-insurance parts of the supervised firm. This approach would, by 
definition, not capture all the material risks of the organization. 
While section 171 of the Dodd-Frank Act, as amended, permits the Board 
to exclude state and foreign regulated insurance entities in 
establishing minimum consolidated leverage and risk-based capital 
requirements, the parent holding company should be a source of capital 
strength to the entire entity, including to the subsidiary insurance 
companies and IDIs. To do this effectively, a consolidated capital 
requirement must take into account the risks within the consolidated 
organization, including insurance risks.
    A capital approach based on the European Solvency II framework was 
considered, but would not appear to be appropriate for systemically 
important insurance companies and insurance depository institution 
holding companies in the United States.\20\ Use of a Solvency II-based 
capital framework would not adequately account for U.S. GAAP and may 
introduce excessive volatility due to discount rate assumptions. 
Moreover, use of a Solvency II-based approach would involve excessive 
reliance on internal models. Internal models make cross-firm 
comparisons difficult and can lack transparency to supervisors and 
market participants. Additionally, such an approach would not be 
executable in the short-to-medium term; the notable challenges of the 
Solvency II regime have resulted in significantly extended 
implementation periods in various European jurisdictions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \20\ See Council Directive 2009/138, On the Taking-Up and 
Pursuit of the Buisness of Insurance and Reinsurance (Solvency II), 
2009 O.J. (L 335) 1 (EC).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Board also analyzed a potential regulatory capital framework 
for supervised institutions significantly engaged in insurance 
activities that is based on internal stress testing. This approach 
would rely on internal models, be highly novel and complex, would 
entail a large and lengthy construction project, and would require a 
substantial dedication of supervisory resources to superintend. The 
Board intends to continue exploration of internal stress testing as it 
builds its supervisory stress testing program for systemically 
important insurance companies and its broader supervision program for 
supervised institutions significantly engaged in insurance activities.

    Question 38. Should the Board reevaluate any of these 
approaches? What additional consideration, if any, should the Board 
give to any of the regulatory capital approaches discussed above?

III. Conclusion

    The Board is seeking information on all aspects of its approaches 
to insurance regulatory capital and invites comment on the appropriate 
consolidated capital requirements for systemically important insurance 
companies and insurance depository institution holding companies. In 
addition, the Board invites comment on all of the questions set forth 
in this ANPR, as well as other issues that commenters may wish to 
raise.
    In connection with this ANPR, the Board will review all comments 
submitted and supplementary information provided, as well as 
information regarding insurance regulatory capital derived from the 
Board's regulatory and supervisory activities. Once the Board has 
completed its review, the Board anticipates that it will issue a notice 
of proposed rulemaking to establish a regulatory capital framework for 
supervised institutions significantly engaged in insurance activities.

    By order of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System, June 9, 2016.
Robert deV. Frierson,
Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2016-14004 Filed 6-13-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6210-01-P



                                                                           Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 14, 2016 / Proposed Rules                                                     38631

                                                    By order of the Board of Governors of the               • Mail: Robert deV. Frierson,                        size, scope, and complexity of the
                                                  Federal Reserve System, June 9, 2016.                   Secretary, Board of Governors of the                   operations of the institution. Further,
                                                  Robert deV. Frierson,                                   Federal Reserve System, 20th Street and                the law allows the Board to tailor the
                                                  Secretary of the Board.                                 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington,                   minimum capital requirements
                                                  [FR Doc. 2016–14005 Filed 6–13–16; 8:45 am]             DC 20551.                                              applicable to companies that both own
                                                  BILLING CODE 6210–01–P                                  All public comments will be made                       an IDI and significantly engage in
                                                                                                          available on the Board’s Web site at                   insurance activities as well as for
                                                                                                          http://www.federalreserve.gov/                         systemically important insurance
                                                  FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM                                  generalinfo/foia/ProposedRegs.cfm as                   companies.
                                                                                                          submitted, unless modified for technical                  The Board’s supervisory objectives in
                                                  12 CFR Chapter II                                                                                              setting capital requirements for the
                                                                                                          reasons. Accordingly, your comments
                                                  [Docket No. R–1539]                                     will not be edited to remove any                       consolidated institution focus on the
                                                                                                          identifying or contact information.                    safety and soundness of the company
                                                  RIN 7100 AE 53                                                                                                 and its IDI and on enhancing financial
                                                                                                          Public comments may also be viewed
                                                                                                          electronically or in paper form in Room                stability, and complement the primary
                                                  Capital Requirements for Supervised                                                                            mission of state legal entity insurance
                                                  Institutions Significantly Engaged in                   3515, 1801 K Street NW., (between 18th
                                                                                                          and 19th Streets NW.), Washington, DC                  supervisors, which tends to focus on the
                                                  Insurance Activities                                                                                           protection of policyholders.1 To achieve
                                                                                                          20006 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
                                                  AGENCY: Board of Governors of the                       on weekdays. For security reasons, the                 these objectives, the Board seeks
                                                  Federal Reserve System.                                                                                        comment on several approaches to
                                                                                                          Board requires that visitors make an
                                                  ACTION: Advance notice of proposed                                                                             designing a regulatory capital
                                                                                                          appointment to inspect comments. You
                                                  rulemaking.                                                                                                    framework for supervised institutions
                                                                                                          may do so by calling (202) 452–3684.
                                                                                                                                                                 significantly engaged in insurance
                                                  SUMMARY:    The Board of Governors of the               Upon arrival, visitors will be required to
                                                                                                                                                                 activities that is intended to ensure that
                                                  Federal Reserve System (Board) is                       present valid government-issued photo
                                                                                                                                                                 the institution has sufficient capital,
                                                  inviting comment on an advance notice                   identification and to submit to security
                                                                                                                                                                 commensurate with its overall
                                                  of proposed rulemaking (ANPR)                           screening in order to inspect and
                                                                                                                                                                 institution-wide risk profile (1) to
                                                  regarding approaches to regulatory                      photocopy comments.
                                                                                                                                                                 absorb losses and continue operations as
                                                  capital requirements for depository                     FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:                       a going concern throughout times of
                                                  institution holding companies                           Thomas Sullivan, Associate Director,                   economic, financial, and insurance-
                                                  significantly engaged in insurance                      (202) 475–7656, Linda Duzick, Manager,                 related stress (e.g., morbidity, mortality,
                                                  activities (insurance depository                        (202) 728–5881, or Suyash Paliwal,                     longevity, natural and man-made
                                                  institution holding companies), and                     Senior Insurance Policy Analyst, (202)                 catastrophes); (2) to serve as a source of
                                                  nonbank financial companies that the                    974–7033, Division of Banking                          strength to any subsidiary depository
                                                  Financial Stability Oversight Council                   Supervision and Regulation; or Laurie                  institutions; 2 and (3) to substantially
                                                  (FSOC or Council) has determined will                   Schaffer, Associate General Counsel,                   mitigate any threats to financial stability
                                                  be supervised by the Board and that                     (202) 452–2272, Benjamin W.                            that the institution might pose.
                                                  have significant insurance activities                   McDonough, Special Counsel, (202)
                                                  (systemically important insurance                       452–2036; Tate Wilson, Counsel, (202)                  B. The Board’s Consolidated
                                                  companies). The Board is inviting                       452–369; David Alexander, Counsel,                     Supervision of Systemically Important
                                                  comment on two approaches to                            (202) 452–2877; or Mary Watkins,                       Insurance Companies and Insurance
                                                  consolidated capital requirements for                   Attorney (202) 452–3722, Legal                         Depository Institution Holding
                                                  these institutions: An approach that                    Division.                                              Companies
                                                  uses existing legal entity capital                                                                               This ANPR seeks comment on
                                                                                                          SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
                                                  requirements as building blocks for                                                                            proposed approaches to regulatory
                                                  insurance depository institution holding                I. Introduction                                        capital requirements that are tailored to
                                                  companies and a simple consolidated                                                                            the risks of supervised insurance
                                                                                                          A. Background
                                                  approach for systemically important                                                                            institutions, including both insurance
                                                  insurance companies.                                       Robust capital is an important                      depository institution holding
                                                  DATES: Comments must be received no                     safeguard to protect the safety and                    companies and systemically important
                                                  later than August 17, 2016.                             soundness of financial institutions;                   insurance companies.
                                                  ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
                                                                                                          enhance the resilience of financial                      The Board has broad authority to
                                                  identified by Docket No. R–1539; RIN                    institutions to position them to better                establish regulatory capital standards for
                                                  7100 AE 53), by any of the following                    navigate periods of financial or
                                                                                                                                                                   1 For discussion regarding state supervision of
                                                  methods:                                                economic stress; and mitigate threats to
                                                                                                                                                                 insurance, see, e.g., Financial Stability Oversight
                                                     • Agency Web site: http://                           financial stability that might be posed                Council, Basis of the Financial Stability Oversight
                                                  www.federalreserve.gov. Follow the                      by the activities, material financial                  Council’s Final Determination Regarding American
                                                  instructions for submitting comments at                 distress, or failure of financial                      International Group, Inc. (July 8, 2013), available at
                                                                                                          institutions. To help achieve these                    https://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/
                                                  http://www.federalreserve.gov/                                                                                 designations/Documents/Basis%20of%20
                                                  generalinfo/foia/ProposedRegs.cfm.                      benefits, various provisions of Federal                Final%20Determination%20Regarding%
                                                     • Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://                law require the Board and other Federal                20American%20International%20Group,%20Inc.
sradovich on DSK3TPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS




                                                  www.regulations.gov. Follow the                         banking agencies to establish minimum                  pdf; Financial Stability Oversight Council, Basis of
                                                                                                                                                                 the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s Final
                                                  instructions for submitting comments.                   capital standards for holding companies                Determination Regarding Prudential Financial, Inc.
                                                     • Email: regs.comments@                              that own insured depository institutions               (Sept. 19, 2013), available at https://
                                                  federalreserve.gov. Include Docket No.                  (IDIs) and for financial firms that are                www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/designations/
                                                  R–1539; RIN 7100 AE 53) in the subject                  designated by the FSOC for supervision                 Documents/Prudential%20Financial%20Inc.pdf.
                                                                                                                                                                   2 12 U.S.C. 1831o–1. See also, 12 U.S.C. 1844 and
                                                  line of the message.                                    by the Board. The capital standards                    Section 706, Division O, of the Consolidated
                                                     • Fax: (202) 452–3819 or (202) 452–                  developed by the Board take into                       Appropriations Act, 2016, Public Law 114–113, 129
                                                  3102.                                                   account the overall risk profile and the               Stat. 2242 (2015).



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                                                  38632                     Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 14, 2016 / Proposed Rules

                                                  savings and loan holding companies                       would apply to persons regulated by                       The Board is also seeking comment on
                                                  (SLHCs) and bank holding companies                       state or foreign insurance regulators.9                the criteria that should be used to
                                                  (BHCs) 3 under the Home Owners’ Loan                        The Board currently supervises                      determine which supervised institutions
                                                  Act (HOLA) and Bank Holding                              twelve insurance depository institution                are subject to regulatory capital
                                                  Company Act, respectively.4 The                          holding companies and two                              requirements that are tailored to the
                                                  Board’s supervisory objectives for                       systemically important insurance                       business of insurance. A supervised
                                                  insurance depository institution holding                 companies. Collectively, these firms                   insurance institution could become
                                                  companies include ensuring the safe                      have approximately $2 trillion in assets               subject to tailored regulatory capital
                                                  and sound operation of the consolidated                  and represent approximately one-                       rules based on the significance of these
                                                  firms and subsidiary IDIs, and ensuring                  quarter of the assets of the U.S.                      activities for the consolidated firm. The
                                                  that holding companies can serve as a                    insurance industry. These institutions                 Board could apply a threshold based on
                                                  source of strength for any subsidiary                    range in size from approximately $3                    a percentage of total consolidated assets
                                                  IDIs.5 In addition, certain nonbank                      billion in total assets to about $700                  attributable to insurance activities. For
                                                  financial companies with significant                     billion in total assets, and engage in a               example, for purposes of determining
                                                  insurance activities have been                           wide variety of insurance and non-                     whether an SLHC is significantly
                                                  designated by the Council pursuant to                    insurance activities. Some of the firms                engaged in insurance activities and
                                                  section 113 of the Dodd-Frank Act 6 to                   operate exclusively in the United States,              should be subject to capital
                                                  be supervised by the Board and made                      and some have material international                   requirements that are tailored to these
                                                  subject to enhanced prudential                           operations. These institutions have a                  risks, the Board is considering using the
                                                  standards. For these systemically                        variety of ownership structures,                       threshold in the Board’s existing capital
                                                  important insurance companies, the                       including stock and mutual forms of                    requirements (Regulation Q).10 Under
                                                  Board is required under section 165 of                   ownership. Some of these institutions                  this approach, an SLHC would be
                                                  the Dodd-Frank Act to establish                          prepare financial statements according                 subject to the capital requirements as an
                                                                                                           to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting                  insurance SLHC if it held 25 percent or
                                                  enhanced prudential standards,
                                                                                                           Principles (U.S. GAAP), and some do                    more of its total consolidated assets in
                                                  including more stringent risk-based and
                                                                                                           not, preparing financial statements only               insurance underwriting subsidiaries
                                                  leverage capital requirements, as well as
                                                                                                           according to U.S. Statutory Accounting                 (other than assets associated with
                                                  stress tests.7
                                                                                                           Principles (SAP) filed with their                      insurance underwriting for credit
                                                     With respect to both insurance                        relevant state insurance regulators. The               risk).11 Further, the Board could define
                                                  depository institution holding                           insurance depository institution holding               systemically important insurance
                                                  companies and systemically important                     companies tend to have simpler                         companies as FSOC-designated nonbank
                                                  insurance companies, the Board must                      structures, often have an operating                    financial companies with at least 40
                                                  establish minimum leverage capital                       company, rather than a holding                         percent of total consolidated assets
                                                  requirements and minimum risk-based                      company, as the top-tier parent, and                   related to insurance activities (as of the
                                                  capital requirements that apply (1) on a                 have a relatively greater U.S. focus in                end of either of the two most recently
                                                  consolidated basis, and (2) are at least                 their operations. By contrast, the                     completed fiscal years), or as otherwise
                                                  as stringent as the generally applicable                 systemically important insurance                       ordered by the Board. These thresholds
                                                  capital requirements that applied to IDIs                companies are relatively larger financial              could reflect a level of insurance
                                                  at the time the Dodd-Frank Act was                       institutions with substantial                          activity that is significant rather than
                                                  adopted, as well as current generally                    international operations, comparatively                incidental to the institution’s activities.
                                                  applicable IDI capital requirements.8                    complex organizational structures                         The Board invites comment on all
                                                  The Dodd-Frank Act has been amended                      relative to other insurance companies,                 aspects of these frameworks, including
                                                  to allow the Board to tailor these                       and non-insurance as well as insurance                 whether these frameworks are workable,
                                                  minimum capital requirements as they                     activities.                                            would enhance the resilience of these
                                                                                                              The Board aims to develop regulatory                institutions, and would reduce risks to
                                                     3 BHCs that are financial holding companies may       capital frameworks for insurance                       financial stability. The Board also
                                                  engage in insurance underwriting activities. 12          depository institution holding                         invites comment and suggestions on
                                                  U.S.C. 1844(k).
                                                     4 12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.; 12 U.S.C. 1467a(g).
                                                                                                           companies and systemically important                   other frameworks that may better
                                                     5 12 U.S.C. 1831o–1. See also 12 U.S.C.               insurance companies that are consistent                achieve these purposes. In addition, the
                                                  1467a(g)(5).                                             with the Board’s supervisory objectives                Board invites comment on the costs and
                                                     6 12 U.S.C. 5323; see also Basis of the Financial     and appropriately tailored to the                      benefits of these and alternate
                                                  Stability Oversight Council’s Final Determination        business of insurance. The Board is                    approaches, and on the various
                                                  Regarding American International Group, Inc. (July       seeking comment on different
                                                  8, 2013), available at http://www.treasury.gov/
                                                                                                                                                                  advantages and difficulties of each
                                                  initiatives/fsoc/designations/Documents/Basis            frameworks that could be applied to                    approach. To help the Board address
                                                  %20of%20Final%20Determination%20Regarding                insurance depository institution holding               specific issues raised by the regulatory
                                                  %20American%20International%20Group,                     companies and systemically important                   capital frameworks discussed below, the
                                                  %20Inc.pdf; Basis for the Financial Stability            insurance companies. As described
                                                  Oversight Council’s Final Determination Regarding
                                                                                                                                                                  Board also invites comment on the
                                                  Prudential Financial, Inc. (Sept. 19, 2013), available   below, this ANPR outlines two
                                                  at http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/             conceptual frameworks, one of which                      10 12 CFR 217.2.
                                                  designations/Documents/Prudential                        may be more appropriate for large,                       11 12 CFR 217.2. Depository institution holding
sradovich on DSK3TPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS




                                                  %20Financial%20Inc.pdf.                                  complex, systemically important                        companies comprise BHCs as well as SLHCs.
                                                     7 12 U.S.C. 5365. Section 165 of the Dodd-Frank
                                                                                                           institutions, while the other may be                   Presently, the population of Board-supervised
                                                  Act would also direct the Board to establish                                                                    insurance depository institution holding companies
                                                  consolidated capital requirements and administer         more appropriate for generally less                    includes 12 SLHCs significantly engaged in
                                                  stress test for any insurance depository institution     complex firms such as the current                      insurance activities. To the extent that a BHC met
                                                  holding companies that are BHCs with at least $50        population of insurance depository                     the definition of an insurance depository institution
                                                  billion in total consolidated assets. Presently, there                                                          holding company, the Board would need to
                                                  are no BHCs that are also insurance depository
                                                                                                           institution holding companies.
                                                                                                                                                                  consider whether to exclude the BHC from the
                                                  institution holding companies.                                                                                  Board’s Regulation Q and instead apply a different
                                                     8 12 U.S.C. 5371.                                      9 12   U.S.C. 5371(c)(1).                             approach.



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                                                                           Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 14, 2016 / Proposed Rules                                                  38633

                                                  specific questions listed throughout this               subsidiaries to regulated subsidiaries.13              if any, should be used to determine whether
                                                  notice.                                                 Moreover, the framework should be as                   a supervised institution is significantly
                                                                                                          standardized as possible, rather than                  engaged in insurance activities and should be
                                                  II. Consolidated Capital Frameworks                                                                            subject to regulatory capital requirements
                                                                                                          relying predominantly on a firm’s
                                                  for Supervised Institutions Significantly                                                                      tailored to the business mix and risk profile
                                                                                                          internal capital models. Greater                       of insurance?
                                                  Engaged in Insurance Activities: Two
                                                                                                          standardization will produce more
                                                  Options                                                                                                           The remainder of this section will
                                                                                                          consistent capital requirements,
                                                     In developing and evaluating                         enhance comparability across firms, and                describe two potential regulatory capital
                                                  potential capital frameworks, the Board                 promote greater transparency.14                        frameworks for supervised institutions
                                                  relied on its experience in supervision                    The capital framework also should be                significantly engaged in insurance
                                                  of financial firms and with the                         based on U.S. regulatory and accounting                activities; discuss the strengths and
                                                  development and application of capital                  standards and not foreign regulatory and               weaknesses of each approach; and
                                                  standards through normal and stressed                   accounting standards in order to best                  suggest ways in which each approach
                                                  periods; discussions with affected                      meet the needs of the U.S. financial                   could be effectively applied. The Board
                                                  financial firms, including firms engaged                system and insurance markets while                     invites comment on all aspects of each
                                                  in insurance activities; the purposes of                reflecting the risks inherent in the                   approach. The Board will then use these
                                                  and requirements in Federal law; and                    business of insurance. The framework                   comments to develop a specific
                                                  information and insights provided by                    should strike a reasonable balance                     proposal, likely based on these two
                                                  other supervisors, including state                      between simplicity and risk sensitivity.               approaches, and invite public comment
                                                  insurance supervisors, among other                      Achieving this balance will help ensure                on that specific proposal.
                                                  things.                                                 that risks are accurately captured while
                                                                                                                                                                 A. Option 1: Building Block Approach
                                                     Insurance supervisors, insurance                     minimizing regulatory burden and
                                                  companies and others have argued that                   increasing comparability and                             The Board has traditionally set capital
                                                  because liability structures, asset                     transparency across firms. The                         requirements for holding companies on
                                                  classes, and asset-liability matching of                framework also should be executable in                 a consolidated basis.15 Among other
                                                  insurance companies differ markedly                     the short-to-medium term. Finally, the                 things, a consolidated capital standard
                                                  from those of a typical BHC, the capital                framework should contribute to the                     deters firms from placing assets in a
                                                  framework (or frameworks) should be                     stability of the financial system and                  particular legal entity, where the assets
                                                  tailored to the business mix and risk                   should serve as a good basis for a                     may be subject to lower, or no, capital
                                                  profile of insurance depository                         supervisory stress test regime to the                  requirements. Many SLHCs that are
                                                  institution holding companies and                       extent these provisions apply to the                   supervised insurance institutions
                                                  systemically important insurance                        regulated firm.                                        because they own depository
                                                  companies. They have also contended                        The Board invites comment on the                    institutions do not produce
                                                  that leverage limits based on the ratio of              considerations that should guide the                   consolidated financial statements.16
                                                  equity to total assets, which are an                    development of a regulatory capital                    This presents potential challenges to the
                                                  important backstop in a banking                         framework for insurance depository                     development of consolidated capital
                                                  regulatory capital framework, may have                  institution holding companies and                      requirements that would not impose
                                                  less value as a risk metric for supervised              systemically important insurance                       undue burden on these institutions.
                                                  institutions significantly engaged in                   companies.                                               One approach that would
                                                  insurance activities because they do not                   Question 1. Are these identified                    accommodate this would aggregate
                                                  address the different liability structure               considerations appropriate? Are there other            capital resources and capital
                                                  that is inherent to the insurance                       considerations the Board should incorporate            requirements across the different legal
                                                  business. The Board has flexibility to                  in its evaluation of capital frameworks for            entities in the group to calculate
                                                                                                          supervised institutions significantly engaged          combined qualifying and required
                                                  develop leverage and risk-based capital                 in insurance activities?
                                                  requirements that are tailored to                                                                              capital. A firm’s aggregate capital
                                                                                                             Question 2. Should the same capital
                                                  appropriately reflect the risks of                      framework apply to all supervised insurance            requirements generally would be the
                                                  supervised institutions significantly                   institutions?                                          sum of the capital requirements at each
                                                  engaged in insurance activities.12                         Question 3. What criteria should the Board          subsidiary. This is a building block
                                                     At the same time, supervisors and                    use to determine whether a supervised                  approach (BBA). The capital
                                                  commenters recognize that a capital                     insurance institution should be subject to             requirement for each regulated
                                                  framework also should take into account                 regulatory capital rules tailored to the               insurance or depository institution
                                                                                                          business of insurance?                                 subsidiary would be based on the
                                                  all material risk types (insurance and                     Question 4. If multiple capital frameworks
                                                  non-insurance) in these institutions.                   are used, what criteria should be used to
                                                                                                                                                                 regulatory capital rules of that
                                                  Capital standards that do not account                   determine whether a supervised insurance               subsidiary’s functional regulator—
                                                  for all types of material risks tend to be              institution should be subject to each                  whether a state or foreign insurance
                                                  ineffective and incent riskier activity. In             framework?                                             regulator for insurance subsidiaries or a
                                                  addition, to the greatest extent possible,                 Question 5. In addition to insurance                federal banking regulator for IDIs. The
                                                  the capital framework should take                       underwriting activities, what other activities,        BBA would then build upon and
                                                  account of risks across the entire firm—                                                                       aggregate legal entity (insurance, non-
                                                                                                             13 For example, severe losses in non-insurance
                                                  in the holding company, in regulated                                                                           insurance financial, non-financial, and
                                                                                                          subsidiaries may undermine confidence in an entire
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                                                  subsidiaries, and in unregulated                        insurance organization and contribute to a firm’s      holding company) qualifying capital
                                                  subsidiaries. The financial crisis                      inability to meet obligations. Board of Governors of
                                                  demonstrated that risks of financial                    the Federal Reserve System, Regulatory Reform,           15 See 12 CFR part 217.
                                                                                                          American International Group (AIG), Maiden Lane          16 Section 171(c)(3) of the Dodd-Frank Act, as
                                                  distress often spread across an                         II and III, available at https://                      amended, prohibits the Board from requiring,
                                                  organization from unregulated                           www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/reform_              pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act or HOLA,
                                                                                                          aig.htm.                                               supervised institutions that only prepare financial
                                                    12 See Insurance Capital Standards Clarification         14 Actuarial models, as opposed to asset risk-      statements in accordance with SAP to prepare
                                                  Act of 2014, Public Law 113–279, 128 Stat. 3017         weighting models, are nonetheless important in         financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
                                                  (2014).                                                 setting insurance reserves.                            12 U.S.C. 5371(c)(3)(A)–(B).



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                                                  38634                      Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 14, 2016 / Proposed Rules

                                                  and required capital, subject to                          also be determined under the Board’s                   would be achieved through the use of
                                                  adjustments.                                              Regulation Q.                                          scalars. Scalars may, for example, be
                                                    Under this approach, the regulatory                        As discussed further below, BBA may                 appropriate to account for differences in
                                                  capital requirements for a regulated                      require the use of several types of                    stringency applied by different
                                                  insurance underwriting firm would be                      adjustments in the calculation of a                    insurance supervisors, and to ensure
                                                  determined by reference to the rules of                   firm’s enterprise-wide capital                         adequate reflection of the safety and
                                                  the appropriate state or foreign                          requirement. Adjustments may be                        soundness and financial stability goals,
                                                  insurance supervisor for the firm. The                    necessary to conform or standardize the                as opposed to policyholder protection,
                                                  regulatory capital requirement for each                   accounting practices under SAP among                   that the Board is charged with
                                                  IDI generally would be determined                         U.S. jurisdictions, and between SAP and                achieving.
                                                  under the Board’s Regulation Q or under                   foreign jurisdictions. Similarly,                         The ratio of aggregate qualifying
                                                  other capital rules applicable to IDIs.17                 adjustments may be necessary to                        capital to aggregate required capital
                                                  The regulatory capital requirement for                    eliminate inter-company transactions.                  would represent capital adequacy at a
                                                  any other regulated non-insurance or                         Additionally, the BBA may require                   consolidated level. Represented in an
                                                  unregulated subsidiary legal entity, such                 consideration of cross-jurisdictional                  equation, the BBA could be summarized
                                                  as a mid-tier holding company, would                      differences. As discussed below, this                  as follows:




                                                    Question 6. What are the advantages and                 risks of each distinct jurisdiction and                risks, strikes a balance between risk-
                                                  disadvantages of applying the BBA to the                  line of business of the institution.                   sensitivity and simplicity, and is well-
                                                  businesses and risks of supervised                           The key weaknesses of the BBA                       tailored to the business model and risks
                                                  institutions significantly engaged in                                                                            of insurance.18
                                                  insurance activities?
                                                                                                            include: (1) At the top-tier level, it is an
                                                                                                            aggregated, but not a consolidated,                       For the systemically important
                                                    Question 7. What challenges and benefits
                                                  do you foresee to the development,                        capital framework; (2) it would not                    insurance companies, the BBA may not
                                                  implementation, or application of the BBA?                discourage regulatory arbitrage within                 capture the full set of risks these firms
                                                  To what extent would the BBA utilize                      an institution due to inconsistencies                  impose on the financial system without
                                                  existing records, data requirements, and                  across jurisdictional capital                          significant use of adjustments and
                                                  systems, and to what extent would the BBA                 requirements and also may be                           scalars, thereby negating any potential
                                                  require additional records, data, or systems?             vulnerable to gaming through                           burden reduction from the approach.
                                                  How readily could the BBA’s calculations be               techniques such as double leverage (i.e.,              These firms also tend to prepare
                                                  performed across a supervised institution’s                                                                      financial statements under U.S. GAAP,
                                                  subsidiaries and affiliates within and outside
                                                                                                            when an upstream entity issues debt to
                                                                                                            acquire an equity stake in a downstream                thereby making a consolidated capital
                                                  of the United States?                                                                                            requirement less burdensome to
                                                    Question 8. What scalars and adjustments                entity); (3) it would need to account for
                                                  are appropriate to implement the BBA, and                 inter-company transactions, which may                  compute. Accordingly, the BBA may not
                                                  make the BBA effective in helping to ensure               result in extensive adjustments; (4) it                be appropriate for systemically
                                                  resiliency of the firm and comparability                  would require the Board to determine                   important insurance companies.
                                                  among firms, while minimizing regulatory                  scalars regarding a large number of state                 The Board continues to analyze
                                                  burden and incentives and opportunity to                  and foreign insurance regulatory capital               whether the BBA is appropriate as a
                                                  evade the requirements?                                   regimes; and (5) it likely would require               regulatory capital framework and
                                                    Question 9. To what extent is the BBA                                                                          whether it may be appropriate for all
                                                  prone to regulatory arbitrage?
                                                                                                            legal-entity-level stress tests, presenting
                                                                                                            challenges to appropriate reflection of                insurance depository institution holding
                                                    Question 10. Which jurisdictions or capital                                                                    companies or only a subset of these
                                                  regimes would pose the greatest challenges to             diversification and inter-company risk
                                                                                                            transfer mechanisms and other                          firms. Specifically, the Board is
                                                  inclusion in the BBA?
                                                    Question 11. How should the BBA apply to                transactions.                                          considering whether larger or more
                                                  a supervised institution significantly engaged                                                                   complex insurance depository
                                                                                                               The strengths of the BBA would
                                                  in insurance activity where the ultimate                                                                         institution holding companies should be
                                                                                                            appear to be maximized and its
                                                  parent company is an insurer that is also                                                                        subject to a regulatory capital
                                                                                                            weakness minimized were the BBA to
                                                  regulated by a state insurance regulator? Are                                                                    framework other than the BBA.
                                                  there other organizational structures that
                                                                                                            be applied to insurance depository
                                                                                                            institution holding companies, which                      Question 12. Is the BBA an appropriate
                                                  could present challenges?                                                                                        framework for insurance depository
                                                                                                            generally are less complex, less
                                                                                                                                                                   institution holding companies? How effective
                                                     The key strengths of the BBA include                   international, and not systemically                    is the BBA at achieving the goal of ensuring
                                                  the following: (1) It efficiently uses                    important. In this context, incremental                the safety and soundness of an insurance
                                                  existing legal-entity-level regulatory                    safety and soundness benefits would                    depository institution holding company?
                                                  capital frameworks; (2) it is an approach                 appear to be complemented by the                          Question 13. Would the BBA be
                                                  that could be developed and                               lower compliance costs due to the                      appropriate for larger or more complex
sradovich on DSK3TPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS




                                                  implemented expeditiously; (3) it would                   smaller number of scalars involved. In                 insurance companies that might in the future
                                                  involve relatively low regulatory costs                   particular, the BBA is standardized,                   acquire a depository institution?
                                                  and burdens for the institutions; and (4)                 executable, applies U.S.-based                           Further, the Board seeks comment on
                                                  it would produce regulatory capital                       accounting principles for U.S. legal                   the following key issues regarding the
                                                  requirements that are tailored to the                     entities, accounts for material insurance              design and implementation of the BBA.


                                                    17 12   CFR part 217.                                     18 In addition, the BBA could be implemented in
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                                                                                                            a manner consistent with section 171(c)(3) of the
                                                                                                            Dodd-Frank Act.


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                                                                           Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 14, 2016 / Proposed Rules                                               38635

                                                     Baseline capital requirements at the                 engaged in insurance activities that                   qualifying capital for supervised
                                                  legal-entity level. The BBA framework                   aggregates qualifying capital and                      institutions and would apply that
                                                  would begin with the baseline capital                   required capital at different legal                    definition to the institution on a fully
                                                  requirements at each legal entity. For                  entities within the institution should                 consolidated basis. To implement this
                                                  example, for state-regulated insurance                  address inter-company transactions.                    version of the BBA, the Board would
                                                  entities, the BBA could use different                   Although inter-company transactions                    need to develop a definition of
                                                  triggering thresholds from the state risk-              are naturally eliminated in consolidated               consolidated regulatory capital for
                                                  based capital framework (e.g., the                      accounting and regulatory frameworks,                  supervised institutions significantly
                                                  Company Action Level, the Authorized                    in an aggregated framework like the                    engaged in insurance activities,
                                                  Control Level), or some other level as                  BBA, some inter-company transactions                   including rules to address minority
                                                  the appropriate baseline capital                        could generate redundancies in capital                 interests.
                                                  requirement. For some regulated foreign                 requirements, while others could reduce                  Question 20. What are the costs and
                                                  insurance entities, the Board would                     the required capital of a legal entity                 benefits of a uniform, consolidated definition
                                                  need to decide whether the local                        without reducing the overall risk profile              of qualifying capital in the BBA?
                                                  minimum capital requirement,                            of the institution. The BBA should                       Question 21. If the Board were to adopt a
                                                  prescribed capital requirement, or some                 include a treatment for inter-company                  version of the BBA that employs a uniform,
                                                  other requirement is the appropriate                    transactions between different legal                   consolidated definition of qualifying capital,
                                                  baseline. For subsidiary IDIs, the BBA                  entities in the same supervised                        what criteria should the Board consider?
                                                  could use the minimum common equity                     institution.                                           What elements should be treated as
                                                                                                                                                                 qualifying capital under the BBA?
                                                  tier 1, tier 1, or total risk-based capital               Question 18. How should the BBA address                Question 22. Should the Board categorize
                                                  requirements under the standardized                     inter-company transactions?                            qualifying capital into multiple tiers, such as
                                                  approach in the Board’s Regulation Q,                                                                          the approach used in the Board’s Regulation
                                                                                                             Scalars. An important component of
                                                  as well as the tier 1 leverage ratio. For                                                                      Q? If so, what factors should the Board
                                                                                                          the BBA is that scalars would serve to
                                                  unregulated subsidiaries, the BBA could                                                                        consider in determining tiers of qualifying
                                                                                                          bring jurisdictional capital frameworks
                                                  use the risk-based capital or leverage                                                                         capital for supervised institutions
                                                                                                          to comparable levels of supervisory                    significantly engaged in insurance activities
                                                  requirements for depository institutions
                                                                                                          stringency. The BBA would need an                      under the BBA?
                                                  or some other, similarly stringent
                                                                                                          appropriate scalar for each local
                                                  approach.                                               regulatory capital regime, and therefore               B. Option 2: Consolidated Approach
                                                    Question 14. In applying the BBA, what                also would need a set of principles for                   The Board is also considering a
                                                  baseline capital requirement should the                 determining those scalars. Any                         consolidated approach (CA) to capital
                                                  Board use for insurance entities, banking               necessary scalars would be designed to
                                                  entities, and unregulated entities?                                                                            with risk segments and factors
                                                                                                          reflect differences in supervisory                     appropriate for supervised insurance
                                                     State-by-state and international                     purposes appropriate for insurance.                    institutions.
                                                  variances in accounting or capital                        Question 19. What criteria should be used               The CA is a proposed capital
                                                  treatment for supervised institutions                   to develop scalars for jurisdictions? What             framework for supervised institutions
                                                  significantly engaged in insurance                      benefits or challenges are created through the         significantly engaged in insurance
                                                  activities. The accounting practices for                use of scalars?                                        activities that would categorize
                                                  insurance companies can vary from                          Consolidation of qualifying capital.                insurance liabilities, assets, and certain
                                                  state to state due to permitted and                     Under one version of a BBA framework,                  other exposures into risk segments;
                                                  prescribed practices, and can result in                 an insurance depository institution                    determine consolidated required capital
                                                  significant differences in financial                    holding company or systemically                        by applying risk factors to the amounts
                                                  statements between similar entities                     important insurance company generally                  in each segment; define qualifying
                                                  filing SAP financial statements in                      would determine its aggregate                          capital for the consolidated firm; and
                                                  different states. Regulators both within                qualifying capital position by summing                 then compare consolidated qualifying
                                                  and outside of the U.S. have the                        the qualifying capital position at each of             capital to consolidated required capital.
                                                  authority to take actions with respect to               its legal entities. A weakness of this                 Unlike the BBA, which fundamentally
                                                  insurance companies that may result in                  approach is that it could enable the                   aggregates legal-entity-level qualifying
                                                  variances from standard accounting                      supervised institution to engage in                    capital and required capital, the CA
                                                  practices. The BBA would need to                        substantial double leverage—that is, the               would take a fully consolidated
                                                  address international or state regulator                institution’s top-tier legal entity could              approach to qualifying capital and
                                                  approved variances in accounting or                     fund its equity investments in its                     required capital. As distinguished from
                                                  capital requirements for regulated                      subsidiaries by substantial borrowings.                the Board’s consolidated capital
                                                  insurance entities.                                     Such an institution could have                         requirements for bank holding
                                                    Question 15. How should the BBA account               substantial qualifying capital positions               companies, the CA would use risk
                                                  for international or state regulator approved           at each of its major subsidiaries (and                 weights and risk factors that are
                                                  variances to accounting rules?                          thus a robust BBA capital ratio) but                   appropriate for the longer-term nature of
                                                    Question 16. What are the challenges in               could have a weak consolidated capital                 most insurance liabilities.
                                                  using financial data under different                                                                              The foundation of the CA, for
                                                  accounting frameworks? What adjustments
                                                                                                          position.
                                                  and/or eliminations should be made to
                                                                                                             To address this limitation of a simple              systemically important insurance
                                                                                                          BBA, the Board is considering adopting                 companies, would be consolidated
sradovich on DSK3TPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS




                                                  ensure comparability when aggregating to an
                                                  institution-wide level?                                 a version of the BBA that would                        financial information based on U.S.
                                                    Question 17. What approaches or strategies            determine an institution’s aggregate                   GAAP, with adjustments for regulatory
                                                  could the Board use to calibrate the various            qualifying capital position on a uniform,              purposes. Application of the CA to
                                                  capital regimes without needing to make                 consolidated basis. Under such an                      insurance depository institution holding
                                                  adjustments to the underlying accounting?               approach, the BBA would continue to                    companies that do not file U.S. GAAP
                                                    Inter-company transactions. Any                       draw upon capital requirements set by                  financial statements would require the
                                                  approach to regulatory capital for a                    the local regulators of each legal entity,             development of a consolidated approach
                                                  supervised institution significantly                    but would use a single definition of                   based on SAP. Initially, the CA could be


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                                                  38636                    Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 14, 2016 / Proposed Rules

                                                  simple in design, with broad risk                       time to have an increasingly granular                  sensitivity. Represented as an equation,
                                                  segmentation, but could evolve over                     segmentation approach with greater risk                the CA could be summarized as follows:




                                                    Question 23. What are the advantages and              reduce the opportunity for regulatory                  Appropriate segmentation would be
                                                  disadvantages of applying the CA to the                 arbitrage and the potential for double                 important to ensure that similar risks
                                                  businesses and risks of supervised                      leverage. The CA also would more                       face broadly similar capital
                                                  institutions significantly engaged in                   easily enable supervisory stress testing               requirements and that the capital regime
                                                  insurance activities?
                                                    Question 24. What are the likely challenges
                                                                                                          and other macroprudential features for                 produces an appropriate degree of risk
                                                  and benefits to the development,                        systemically important insurance                       sensitivity while minimizing the
                                                  implementation, and application of the CA?              companies.                                             opportunities for regulatory arbitrage.
                                                  To what extent could the CA efficiently use               The advantages of the CA are most                    This segmentation process would
                                                  existing records, data requirements, and                salient for systemically important                     account for differences among insurance
                                                  systems, and to what extent would the CA                insurance companies that, by definition,               risks as well as between insurance risks
                                                  require additional records, data, or systems?           are large, and internally and externally               and banking and other non-insurance,
                                                    Question 25. To what extent would the CA              complex institutions. For insurance                    financial risks. While the initial version
                                                  be prone to regulatory arbitrage?                       depository institution holding                         of the CA likely would have broad risk
                                                     The CA has strengths and weaknesses                  companies, which generally are smaller                 segments, the CA could evolve over
                                                  as a regulatory capital framework. The                  and less complex, these benefits may be                time to become more risk sensitive. One
                                                  key strengths of the CA include the                     outweighed by the additional                           option for implementing the CA for
                                                  following: (1) It has a simple and                      implementation costs.                                  systemically important insurance
                                                  transparent factor-based design; (2) it                    Question 26. Is the CA an appropriate               companies would be to use the
                                                  covers all material risks of supervised                 framework to be applied to systemically                segmentation framework in the Board’s
                                                  institutions significantly engaged in                   important insurance companies? What are                proposed Consolidated Financial
                                                  insurance activities; (3) it is a fully                 the key challenges to applying the CA to               Statements for Insurance Systemically
                                                  consolidated framework that has the                     systemically important insurance                       Important Financial Institutions.19
                                                  potential to reduce regulatory arbitrage                companies? How effective would the CA be
                                                                                                          at achieving the goals of ensuring the safety             Question 30. What risk segmentation
                                                  opportunities and the risk of double                    and soundness of a systemically important              should be used in the CA? What criteria
                                                  leverage; (4) it would be relatively                    insurance company as well as minimizing                should the Board consider in determining the
                                                  expeditious for the Board to develop                    the risk of a systemically important                   risk segments? What criteria should the
                                                  and for institutions to implement,                      insurance company’s failure or financial               Board consider in determining how granular
                                                  particularly in light of its broad risk                 distress on financial stability?                       or risk sensitive the segmentation should be?
                                                                                                             Question 27. What should the Board                     Question 31. What challenges does U.S.
                                                  segmentation as implemented initially;                                                                         GAAP present as a basis for segmentation in
                                                  and (5) it would provide a solid basis                  consider in determining more stringent
                                                                                                          capital requirements to address systemic               the CA?
                                                  upon which to build consolidated                                                                                  Question 32. What are the pros and cons
                                                                                                          risk? Should these requirements be reflected
                                                  supervisory stress tests of capital                     through qualifying capital, required capital,          of using the risk segmentation framework in
                                                  adequacy for institutions subject to                    or both?                                               the proposed Consolidated Financial
                                                  stress testing requirements.                                                                                   Statements for Insurance Systemically
                                                     The key weaknesses of the CA include                   Further, the Board seeks comment on                  Important Financial Institutions as the basis
                                                  the following: (1) The initially simple                 the following key issues regarding the                 of risk segmentation for the CA?
                                                  design of the CA would result in                        design and implementation of the CA.                      Exposure amounts. The CA would
                                                                                                            Definition of qualifying capital.
                                                  relatively crude risk segments and thus                                                                        need to identify the exposure amounts
                                                                                                          Implementation of the CA would
                                                  limited risk sensitivity, and (2)                                                                              of the various kinds of balance-sheet
                                                                                                          require the development of a uniform,
                                                  substantial analysis would be needed to                                                                        assets, balance-sheet insurance
                                                                                                          consolidated definition of qualifying
                                                  design a set of risk factors for all the                                                                       liabilities, and off-balance-sheet
                                                                                                          capital that is appropriate for all
                                                  major segments of assets and insurance                                                                         exposures of an institution. Although in
                                                                                                          institutions subject to the CA.
                                                  liabilities of supervised institutions                                                                         many cases, the reported amount of a
                                                  significantly engaged in insurance                         Question 28. What should the Board                  particular exposure may be appropriate
                                                  activities. In addition, a separate SAP-                consider in developing a definition of                 for purposes of the CA, in other cases
                                                  based version of the CA would need to                   qualifying capital under the CA? What                  the financial information of an
                                                                                                          elements should be treated as qualifying
                                                  be developed for the insurance                          capital under the CA?                                  institution may require adjustments. For
                                                  depository institution holding company                     Question 29. For purposes of the CA,                example, adjusting insurance liabilities
                                                  population if CA were ever applied to                   should the Board categorize qualifying                 may be necessary in order to include
                                                  an insurance depository institution                     capital into multiple tiers? What criteria             additional, relevant information, such as
                                                  holding company that only uses SAP.                     should the Board consider in determining               current assumptions, or to better match
                                                     Based on the Board’s initial analysis                tiers of qualifying capital for supervised             the valuation of related assets. Further,
sradovich on DSK3TPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS




                                                  of the CA’s strengths and weaknesses                    institutions significantly engaged in                  the CA would require the determination
                                                  and comparing the CA against the                        insurance activities under the CA?                     of the appropriate exposure amounts for
                                                  considerations set forth above, it                         Segmentation of exposures.                          derivatives and other off-balance-sheet
                                                  appears that the CA may be an                           Implementing the CA would require a                    items in order to accurately reflect the
                                                  appropriate regulatory capital                          framework for segmenting or                            risk exposure in determining required
                                                  framework for systemically important                    disaggregating balance-sheet assets,                   capital.
                                                  insurance companies. The CA, as a                       balance-sheet insurance liabilities, and
                                                  consolidated capital framework, would                   certain off-balance-sheet exposures.
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                                                                                                                                                                   19 81   FR 24097 (Apr. 25, 2016).



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                                                                           Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 14, 2016 / Proposed Rules                                                 38637

                                                     Question 33. How should the CA reflect               major country that imposes bank capital                significantly engaged in insurance
                                                  off-balance-sheet exposures?                            requirements on insurance firms.                       activities.
                                                     Question 34. Under what circumstances                   The Board also reviewed an approach
                                                  should U.S. GAAP be used or adjusted to                                                                          Question 38. Should the Board reevaluate
                                                                                                          that entirely excluded insurance                       any of these approaches? What additional
                                                  determine the exposure amount of insurance              subsidiaries and applied capital
                                                  liabilities under the CA?                                                                                      consideration, if any, should the Board give
                                                                                                          requirements only to the non-insurance                 to any of the regulatory capital approaches
                                                    Factors. The CA would involve a set                   parts of the supervised firm. This                     discussed above?
                                                  of Board-determined factors to be                       approach would, by definition, not
                                                  applied to the exposure amounts of                      capture all the material risks of the                  III. Conclusion
                                                  assets, insurance liabilities, and off-                 organization. While section 171 of the                    The Board is seeking information on
                                                  balance-sheet items in each risk                        Dodd-Frank Act, as amended, permits                    all aspects of its approaches to
                                                  segment. The factor for each risk                       the Board to exclude state and foreign                 insurance regulatory capital and invites
                                                  segment would reflect the riskiness of                  regulated insurance entities in                        comment on the appropriate
                                                  the segment and the capital required to                 establishing minimum consolidated                      consolidated capital requirements for
                                                  support that risk. Because of the                       leverage and risk-based capital                        systemically important insurance
                                                  different liability structures between                  requirements, the parent holding                       companies and insurance depository
                                                  insurance companies and banks, some                     company should be a source of capital                  institution holding companies. In
                                                  of the applicable insurance risk factors                strength to the entire entity, including to            addition, the Board invites comment on
                                                  may differ from the analogous risk                      the subsidiary insurance companies and                 all of the questions set forth in this
                                                  factors that apply to banks.                            IDIs. To do this effectively, a                        ANPR, as well as other issues that
                                                     Question 35. What considerations should              consolidated capital requirement must                  commenters may wish to raise.
                                                  the Board apply in determining the various              take into account the risks within the                    In connection with this ANPR, the
                                                  factors to be applied to the amounts in the             consolidated organization, including                   Board will review all comments
                                                  risk segments in the CA?                                insurance risks.
                                                     Question 36. What challenges are there in
                                                                                                                                                                 submitted and supplementary
                                                                                                             A capital approach based on the
                                                  determining risk factors for global risks?                                                                     information provided, as well as
                                                                                                          European Solvency II framework was
                                                                                                                                                                 information regarding insurance
                                                     Minimum ratio. The CA would                          considered, but would not appear to be
                                                                                                                                                                 regulatory capital derived from the
                                                  require the establishment of a minimum                  appropriate for systemically important
                                                                                                                                                                 Board’s regulatory and supervisory
                                                  ratio of consolidated qualifying capital                insurance companies and insurance
                                                                                                                                                                 activities. Once the Board has
                                                  to consolidated factor-weighted                         depository institution holding
                                                                                                                                                                 completed its review, the Board
                                                  exposures in the CA. In addition, one or                companies in the United States.20 Use of
                                                                                                                                                                 anticipates that it will issue a notice of
                                                  more definitions of capital adequacy                    a Solvency II-based capital framework
                                                                                                                                                                 proposed rulemaking to establish a
                                                  (e.g., ‘‘well capitalized’’ or ‘‘adequately             would not adequately account for U.S.
                                                                                                                                                                 regulatory capital framework for
                                                  capitalized’’) would be needed for early                GAAP and may introduce excessive
                                                                                                                                                                 supervised institutions significantly
                                                  remediation and other supervisory                       volatility due to discount rate
                                                                                                                                                                 engaged in insurance activities.
                                                  purposes.                                               assumptions. Moreover, use of a
                                                     Question 37. What criteria should the                Solvency II-based approach would                         By order of the Board of Governors of the
                                                  Board consider in developing the minimum                involve excessive reliance on internal                 Federal Reserve System, June 9, 2016.
                                                  capital ratio under the CA and definitions of           models. Internal models make cross-                    Robert deV. Frierson,
                                                  a ‘‘well-capitalized’’ or ‘‘adequately                  firm comparisons difficult and can lack                Secretary of the Board.
                                                  capitalized’’ insurance institution?                    transparency to supervisors and market                 [FR Doc. 2016–14004 Filed 6–13–16; 8:45 am]
                                                  C. Other Assessed Frameworks                            participants. Additionally, such an                    BILLING CODE 6210–01–P
                                                                                                          approach would not be executable in
                                                     In developing the two general
                                                                                                          the short-to-medium term; the notable
                                                  approaches discussed here, the Board
                                                                                                          challenges of the Solvency II regime                   DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
                                                  considered a number of other potential
                                                                                                          have resulted in significantly extended
                                                  regulatory capital frameworks that did
                                                                                                          implementation periods in various                      Internal Revenue Service
                                                  not appear to meet the Board’s
                                                                                                          European jurisdictions.
                                                  supervisory objectives for supervised                      The Board also analyzed a potential
                                                  institutions significantly engaged in                                                                          26 CFR Parts 1 and 301
                                                                                                          regulatory capital framework for
                                                  insurance activities. For example,                      supervised institutions significantly                  [REG–127923–15]
                                                  consideration was given to applying a                   engaged in insurance activities that is
                                                  risk-based capital rule that is based                                                                          RIN 1545–BM97
                                                                                                          based on internal stress testing. This
                                                  solely on the Board’s existing capital                  approach would rely on internal                        Consistent Basis Reporting Between
                                                  requirements for banking organizations                  models, be highly novel and complex,                   Estate and Person Acquiring Property
                                                  (Regulation Q) to supervised institutions               would entail a large and lengthy                       From Decedent; Hearing
                                                  significantly engaged in insurance                      construction project, and would require
                                                  activities. Such an approach would not                  a substantial dedication of supervisory                AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS),
                                                  recognize the unique risks, regulation,                 resources to superintend. The Board                    Treasury.
                                                  and balance sheet composition of                        intends to continue exploration of                     ACTION: Notice of public hearing on
                                                  insurance firms. Although bank-like                                                                            proposed rulemaking.
sradovich on DSK3TPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS




                                                                                                          internal stress testing as it builds its
                                                  capital requirements may be appropriate                 supervisory stress testing program for
                                                  for exposures that a supervised                         systemically important insurance                       SUMMARY:   This document provides
                                                  institution significantly engaged in                    companies and its broader supervision                  notice of public hearing on the proposed
                                                  insurance activities holds in a non-                    program for supervised institutions                    regulations that provide guidance
                                                  insurance subsidiary, an approach based                                                                        regarding the requirement that a
                                                  solely on the Board’s Regulation Q                        20 See Council Directive 2009/138, On the Taking-    recipient’s basis in certain property
                                                  would not capture significant insurance                 Up and Pursuit of the Buisness of Insurance and        acquired from a decedent be consistent
                                                  risks. The Board is not aware of any                    Reinsurance (Solvency II), 2009 O.J. (L 335) 1 (EC).   with the value of the property as finally


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Document Created: 2016-06-14 02:59:02
Document Modified: 2016-06-14 02:59:02
CategoryRegulatory Information
CollectionFederal Register
sudoc ClassAE 2.7:
GS 4.107:
AE 2.106:
PublisherOffice of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration
SectionProposed Rules
ActionAdvance notice of proposed rulemaking.
DatesComments must be received no later than August 17, 2016.
ContactThomas Sullivan, Associate Director, (202) 475-7656, Linda Duzick, Manager, (202) 728-5881, or Suyash Paliwal, Senior Insurance Policy Analyst, (202) 974-7033, Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation; or Laurie Schaffer, Associate General Counsel, (202) 452-2272, Benjamin W. McDonough, Special Counsel, (202) 452-2036; Tate Wilson, Counsel, (202) 452-369; David Alexander, Counsel, (202) 452-2877; or Mary Watkins, Attorney (202) 452-3722, Legal Division.
FR Citation81 FR 38631 

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