FFIEC Agencies Announce Additional Guidance for Financial Institutions
in Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) member agencies today announced the availability of additional supervisory guidance on regulatory and reporting issues related to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. This information, in the form of questions and answers, provides guidance on:

• The agencies' expectations for regulatory reports, including Bank Reports of Condition and Income (Call Reports), Bank Holding Company Reports, Thrift Financial Reports, Thrift Holding Company Reports, and Credit Union 5300 and 5310 Call Reports, for the quarter ending September 30, 2005 ;
• Appropriate allowances for loan and lease losses in third quarter regulatory reports;
• Accounting treatment of sales of held-to-maturity securities to meet increased liquidity needs directly related to the hurricanes; and,
• Temporary hardship programs for bank and saving association credit card customers, and related delinquency and credit bureau reporting issues.

The above questions and answers, along with other hurricane-related information, are available at the FFIEC's and the member agencies' web sites listed below. The agencies are developing responses to other supervisory and regulatory questions related to the hurricanes. When those responses are available, the agencies and the FFIEC will post them to their web sites.

The five member agencies are also announcing that they have granted a waiver from the agencies' appraisal regulations to regulated institutions entering into transactions with borrowers affected by the hurricanes. The Federal Register notice with the statement and order waiving the regulatory appraisal requirements is available on the agencies' web sites.

Links to Web Sites :

FFIEC: http://www.ffiec.gov/katrina.htm

FDIC: http://www.fdic.gov/hurricane/index.html

FRB: http://www.federalreserve.gov/hurricanekatrina.htm

OCC: http://www.occ.treas.gov/hurricane.htm

OTS: http://www.ots.treas.gov/hurricane

NCUA: http://www.ncua.gov/Katrina/index.htm and http://www.ncua.gov/Rita/index.htm

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