The Board is amending its Rules of Procedure to conform the comment period for branch notice applications with the period specified in its Regulation H, Membership of State Banking Institutions in the Federal Reserve System. The Rules of Procedure were not amended when the Regulation was amended, effective September 30, 1998. The Board is also amending the Rules of Procedure to delete the requirements for notices of memberships in cases where membership would confer federal deposit insurance, because there are no longer cases where membership confers federal deposit insurance. In addition, the Board is amending the Rules of Procedure to clarify that the requirement to publish notice in the community where a proposed branch would be located does not apply to branch applications incidental to merger applications, which are subject to the separate notice requirements for merger applications.