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Financial regulators highlight coordination and collaboration of efforts to address COVID-19

ARLINGTON, VA (March 26, 2020) — The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council continues to monitor and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic to promote the ongoing ability of the nation’s financial institutions to support the households and businesses that depend on them.

FFIEC members, who met as a group yesterday, are actively discussing and identifying appropriate measures, both collaboratively and individually, to maintain safety and soundness while protecting consumers. Members note that banks and credit unions of all sizes have built up substantial levels of capital and liquidity over the last decade, positioning them well to support the needs of households and businesses.

The members underscore that the financial services sector provides critical services during the pandemic by ensuring the continued availability of financial resources to consumers and businesses. The members will provide guidance to financial institutions and work with state and local officials on how to identify workers as essential critical infrastructure workers to ensure the security and resilience of the Nation’s critical infrastructure.

The agencies understand that financial institutions may need additional time to submit certain regulatory reports in light of staffing priorities and disruptions caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The federal banking agencies will not take action against any institution for submitting its March 31, 2020, Reports of Condition and Income (Call Reports) after the respective filing deadline, as long as the report is submitted within 30 days of the official filing date. Institutions are encouraged to contact their primary federal regulator in advance of the official filing date if they anticipate a delayed submission.

About FFIEC

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) was established on March 10, 1979, pursuant to title X of the Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978 (FIRA), Public Law 95-630. In 1989, title XI of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) established The Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) within the Examination Council. The Council is a formal interagency body empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions. To encourage the application of uniform examination principles and standards by the state and federal supervisory authorities, the Council established, in accordance with the requirement of the statute, the State Liaison Committee composed of five representatives of state supervisory agencies. In accordance with the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2006, a representative state regulator was added as a voting member of the Council in October 2006. The Council is responsible for developing uniform reporting systems for federally supervised financial institutions, their holding companies, and the nonfinancial institution subsidiaries of those institutions and holding companies. It conducts schools for examiners employed by the five federal member agencies represented on the Council and makes those schools available to employees of state agencies that supervise financial institutions. The Council was given additional statutory responsibilities by section 340 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980 to facilitate public access to data that depository institutions must disclose under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (HMDA) and the aggregation of annual HMDA data, by census tract, for each metropolitan statistical area (MSA).

Contacts

FDIC
LaJuan Williams-Young
202-898-6993

FRB
Chelsea Grate
202-452-2955

OCC
Anne Edgecomb
202-649-6870

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