In December 2011, the three federal bank regulatory agencies announced proposed amendments to their market risk capital rules to remove any references to credit ratings in order to comply with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed in 2010. Section 939A of the act requires federal agencies to review their regulations and remove any references to or requirements of reliance on credit ratings and to replace them with alternative standards of credit-worthiness. The bank regulatory agencies were requesting comments to the December 2011 NPR until Feb. 3.
The market risk capital rules (MRCR) impose capital requirements on certain U.S. banking organizations with significant trading operations and stem from guidelines established by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. In order to account for revisions to the market risk framework adopted by the BCBS between July 2005 and June 2010, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation jointly proposed modifications to their MRCR in an earlier notice of proposed rulemaking published in January 2011.
