Federal Reserve Policy on Payment System Risk; U.S. Branches and Agencies of Foreign Banking Organizations

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (``Board'') is requesting comment on proposed changes to part II of the Federal Reserve Policy on Payment System Risk (``PSR policy'') related to procedures for determining the net debit cap and maximum daylight overdraft capacity of a U.S. branch or agency of a foreign banking organization (``FBO''). Under the PSR policy, an FBO's strength of support assessment (``SOSA'') ranking can affect its eligibility for a positive net debit cap, the size of its net debit cap, and its eligibility to request a streamlined procedure to obtain maximum daylight overdraft capacity. Additionally, an FBO that is a financial holding company (``FHC'') can generally receive a higher net debit cap than an FBO that is not an FHC, and is generally eligible to request a streamlined procedure to obtain maximum daylight overdraft capacity. The proposed changes to the PSR policy would remove references to the SOSA ranking; remove references to FBOs' FHC status; and adopt alternative methods for determining an FBO's eligibility for a positive net debit cap, the size of its net debit cap, and its eligibility to request a streamlined procedure to obtain maximum daylight overdraft capacity. The Board recognizes that the proposed changes would reduce net debit caps for some FBOs, but the Board believes that the adjusted FBO net debit caps would be better tailored to FBOs' actual usage of intraday credit and would not constrain FBOs' U.S. operations.