Capital; Risk-Based Capital Guidelines; Capital Adequacy Guidelines; Capital Maintenance

The OCC, FRB, FDIC, and OTS (the Agencies) are amending their capital adequacy standards for banks, bank holding companies, and savings associations (banking organizations) to treat originated mortgage servicing rights (OMSRs) the same as purchased mortgage servicing rights (PMSRs) for regulatory capital purposes. The interim capital rule was developed in response to the Financial Accounting Standards Board's issuance of Statement No. 122, ``Accounting for Mortgage Servicing Rights,'' which eliminates the accounting distinction between OMSRs and PMSRs by requiring OMSRs to be capitalized as balance sheet assets, a treatment previously required only for PMSRs. Under the interim rule, both OMSRs and PMSRs are ``included in'' (i.e., not deducted from) regulatory capital when determining Tier 1 (core) capital for purposes of the Agencies' risk- based and leverage capital standards, and when calculating tangible equity for purposes of prompt corrective action, subject to the regulatory capital limitations that previously applied only to PMSRs. Thus, the effect of the interim rule is to permit OMSRs in regulatory capital, subject to certain limitations.