OCC delays OREO rule effective date to January to comply with 1994 reg improvements law

A final rule issued in October on other real estate owned (OREO) by national banks and federal savings associations (FSAs) will take effect Jan. 1, 2020, instead of Dec. 1, 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said in a notice scheduled to publish Thursday in the Federal Register.

The October final rule revised existing OREO rules for banks by providing a regulatory framework for the OREO activities of FSAs; the OCC said this framework would be generally consistent with the framework provided by the former Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).

The delay in the final rule’s effective date, published as a correction, is necessary to satisfy the requirements of the 1994 Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act (RCDRIA), the OCC said. This law requires that new regulations and regulatory amendments that impose new requirements on insured depository institutions “generally must take effect on the first day of a calendar quarter on or after the date the final regulations are published,” the agency said.

The OCC is applying the delayed effective date to the entire rule to avoid confusion about the effective dates applicable to national banks and FSAs. “Any national bank or Federal savings association subject to the final rule may choose to comply with it prior to January 1, 2020,” the agency stated.

Other Real Estate Owned and Technical Amendments; Amendment of Effective Date and Correction