On March 3, the OCC announced it has finalized two rules intended to reduce regulatory burdens for community banks, adopting its earlier proposals to rescind its “Fair Housing Home Loan Data System” (12 CFR part 27) and to amend licensing regulations for certain corporate activities and transactions. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the rescission removes data collection requirements that the agency determined were largely duplicative of other legal authorities, while the licensing amendments create a new definition of “covered community bank or covered community savings association” to expand access to expedited or reduced filing procedures under 12 CFR part 5. The OCC stated that both rules are designed to streamline regulation in line with its supervisory experience and will not materially affect its ability to oversee eligible institutions. The final rules are effective April 3.

The OCC received several comments in response to both proposed rules. On the rescission of 12 CFR part 27, commenters opposed eliminating the data collection requirements and critiqued aspects of the regulatory analyses, but the agency finalized the rule without changes. For the community bank licensing amendments, commenters suggested altering thresholds, definitions, and eligibility criteria, most of which were rejected; the only substantive change made to the final rule was clarifying that a “significant adverse comment” includes a comment that could warrant conditional approval of a filing, in addition to one that would warrant a denial as had been proposed.