Title 31—Money and Finance: Treasury--Volume 1
PART 150—FINANCIAL RESEARCH FUND
§ 150.1   Scope.
The assessments contained in this part are made pursuant to the authority contained in 12 U.S.C. 5345.
§ 150.2   Definitions.
As used in this part:
Assessed company means:
(1) A bank holding company that has $250 billion or more in total assessable assets; or
(2) A bank holding company, regardless of asset size, that has been identified as a global systemically important bank holding company under § 217.402 of title 12, Code of Federal Regulations; or
(3) A nonbank financial company that the Council has determined under section 113 of the Dodd-Frank Act shall be supervised by the Board.
Assessment basis means, for a given assessment period, an estimate of the total expenses that are necessary or appropriate to carry out the responsibilities of the Office of Financial Research (OFR) and the Council as set out in the Dodd-Frank Act (including an amount necessary to reimburse reasonable implementation expenses of the Corporation that shall be treated as expenses of the Council pursuant to section 210(n)(10) of the Dodd-Frank Act).
Assessment fee rate, with regard to a particular assessment period, means the rate published by the Department for the calculation of assessment fees for that period.
Assessment payment date means:
(1) For any assessment period ending on March 31 of a given calendar year, September 15 of the prior calendar year; and
(2) For any assessment period ending on September 30 of a given calendar year, March 15 of the same year.
Assessment period means:
(1) Any period of time beginning on October 1 and ending on March 31 of the following calendar year; or
(2) Any period of time beginning on April 1 and ending on September 30 of the same calendar year.
Bank holding company means:
(1) A bank holding company as defined in section 2 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841); or
(2) A foreign banking organization.
Board means the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Corporation means the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Council means the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
Department means the Department of the Treasury.
Determination date means:
(1) For any assessment period ending on March 31 of a given calendar year, April 30 of the prior calendar year; and
(2) For any assessment period ending on September 30 of a given calendar year, October 31 of the prior calendar year.
Dodd-Frank Act means the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Foreign banking organization means a foreign bank or company that is treated as a bank holding company for purposes of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, pursuant to section 8(a) of the International Banking Act of 1978 (12 U.S.C. 3106(a)).
OFR means the Office of Financial Research established by section 152 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Total assessable assets means:
(1) For a bank holding company other than a foreign banking organization, the average of the company's total consolidated assets for the four quarters preceding the relevant determination date, as reported on the bank holding company's four most recent Consolidated Financial Statements for Bank Holding Companies—FR Y-9C filings;
(2) For any foreign banking organization, the average of the company's total assets of combined U.S. operations for the four quarters preceding the relevant determination date, as reported on the foreign banking organization's four most recent quarterly Capital and Asset Report for Foreign Banking Organizations—FR Y-7Q filings, or, if the foreign banking organization only files such form annually, the average of the two most recent annual filings on such form; or
(3) For a nonbank financial company that the Council has determined under section 113 of the Dodd-Frank Act shall be supervised by the Board, either the average of the company's total consolidated assets for the four quarters preceding the relevant determination date, if the company is a U.S. company, or the average of the total assets of the company's combined U.S. operations for the four quarters preceding the relevant determination date, if the company is a non-U.S. company.
§ 150.3   Determination of assessed companies.
(a) The determination that a bank holding company or a nonbank financial company is an assessed company will be made by the Department.
(b) The Department will apply the following principles in determining whether a company is an assessed company:
(1) For tiered bank holding companies for which a holding company owns or controls, or is owned or controlled by, other holding companies, the assessed company shall be the top-tier, regulated holding company.
(2) In situations where more than one top-tier, regulated bank holding company has a legal authority for control of a U.S. bank, each of the top-tier regulated holding companies shall be designated as an assessed company.
(3) In situations where a company has not filed four consecutive quarters of the financial reports referenced above for the most recent quarters (or two consecutive years for annual filers of the FR Y-7Q or successor form), such as may be true for companies that recently converted to a bank holding company, the Department will use, at its discretion, other financial or annual reports filed by the company, such as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, to determine a company's total consolidated assets.
(4) In situations where a company does not report total consolidated assets in its public reports or where a company uses a financial reporting methodology other than U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to report on its U.S. operations, the Department will use, at its discretion, any comparable financial information that the Department may require from the company for this determination.
(c) Any company that the Department determines is an assessed company on a given determination date will be an assessed company for the entire assessment period related to such determination date, and will be subject to the full assessment fee for that assessment period, regardless of any changes in the company's assets or other attributes that occur after the determination date.
§ 150.4   Calculation of assessment basis.
For each assessment period, the Department will calculate an assessment basis that shall be sufficient to replenish the Financial Research Fund to a level equivalent to the sum of:
(a) Budgeted operating expenses for the OFR for the applicable assessment period;
(b) Budgeted operating expenses for the Council for the applicable assessment period;
(c) Budgeted capital expenses for the OFR for the 12-month period beginning on the first day of the applicable assessment period;
(d) Budgeted capital expenses for the Council for the 12-month period beginning on the first day of the applicable assessment period; and
(e) An amount necessary to reimburse reasonable implementation expenses of the Corporation as provided under section 210(n)(10) of the Dodd-Frank Act.
§ 150.5   Calculation of assessments.
(a) For each assessed company, the Department will calculate the total assessable assets in accordance with the definition in § 150.2.
(b) The Department will allocate the assessment basis to the assessed companies in the following manner:
(1) Based on the sum of all assessed companies' total assessable assets, the Department will calculate the assessment fee rate necessary to collect the assessment basis for the applicable assessment period.
(2) The assessment payable by an assessed company for each assessment period shall be equal to the assessment fee rate for that assessment period multiplied by the total assessable assets of such assessed company.
§ 150.6   Notice and payment of assessments.
(a) No later than fifteen calendar days after the determination date, the Department will send to each assessed company a statement that:
(1) Confirms that such company has been determined by the Department to be an assessed company; and
(2) States the total assessable assets that the Department has determined will be used for calculating the company's assessment.
(b) If a company that is required to make an assessment payment for a given assessment period believes that the statement referred to in paragraph (a) of this section contains an error, the company may provide the Department with a written request for a revised statement. Such request must be received by the Department via email within 30 calendar days and must include all facts that the company requests the Department to consider. The Department will respond to all such requests within 21 calendar days of receipt thereof.
(c) No later than the 14 calendar days prior to the payment date for a given assessment period, the Department will send an electronic billing notification to each assessed company, containing the final assessment that is required to be paid by such assessed company.
(d) For the purpose of making the payments described in § 150.5, each assessed company shall designate a deposit account for direct debit by the Department through www.pay.gov or successor website. No later than the later of 30 days prior to the payment date for an assessment period, or April 17, 2020, each such company shall provide notice to the Department of the account designated, including all information and authorizations required by the Department for direct debit of the account. After the initial notice of the designated account, no further notice is required unless the company designates a different account for assessment debit by the Department, in which case the requirements of the preceding sentence apply.
(e) Each assessed company shall take all actions necessary to allow the Department to debit assessments from such company's designated deposit account. Each such company shall, prior to each assessment payment date, ensure that funds in an amount at least equal to the amount on the relevant electronic billing notification are available in the designated deposit account for debit by the Department. Failure to take any such action or to provide such funding of the account shall be deemed to constitute nonpayment of the assessment. The Department will cause the amount stated in the applicable electronic billing notification to be directly debited on the appropriate payment date from the deposit account so designated.
(f) In the event that, for a given assessment period, an assessed company materially misstates or misrepresents any information that is used by the Department in calculating that company's total assessable assets, the Department may at any time re-calculate the assessment payable by that company for that assessment period, and the assessed company shall take all actions necessary to allow the Department to immediately debit any additional payable amounts from such assessed company's designated deposit account.
(g) If a due date under this section falls on a date that is not a business day, the applicable date shall be the next business day.