This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

5628 

Vol. 74, No. 19 

Friday, January 30, 2009 

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM 

12 CFR Part 204 

[Regulation D; Docket No. R–1350] 

Reserve Requirements of Depository 

Institutions 

AGENCY: Board of Governors of the 

Federal Reserve System. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; 

request for public comment. 

SUMMARY: The Board is requesting 

public comment on proposed 

amendments to Regulation D, Reserve 

Requirements of Depository Institutions, 

to authorize the establishment of 

limited-purpose accounts at Federal 

Reserve Banks (‘‘Reserve Banks’’) for the 

maintenance of excess balances of 

eligible institutions (both as defined in 

Regulation D). These excess balance 

accounts (‘‘EBAs’’) would contain only 

the excess balances of the eligible 

institutions participating in such 

accounts, although the participating 

eligible institutions (‘‘EBA 

Participants’’) would authorize another 

institution (‘‘EBA Agent’’) to manage the 

EBA on their behalf. The authorization 

of EBAs is intended to allow eligible 

institutions to earn interest on their 

excess balances at the excess balance 

rate in an account relationship directly 

with the Federal Reserve Bank as 

counterparty without disrupting 

established business relationships with 

their correspondents. Continuing strains 

in financial markets and the 

configuration of interest rates support 

the implementation of EBAs; however, 

the Board will evaluate the continuing 

need for EBAs when more normal 

market functioning is restored. The 

Board seeks comment on all aspects of 

the proposal. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted by 

March 2, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by Docket No. R–1350, by any 

of the following methods: 

Agency Web Site: http:// 

www.federalreserve.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments at 

http://www.federalreserve.gov/ 

generalinfo/foia/ProposedRegs.cfm. 

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

E-mail: 

regs.comments@federalreserve.gov. 

Include the docket number in the 

subject line of the message. 

Fax: (202) 452–3819 or (202) 452– 

3102. 

Mail: Jennifer J. Johnson, Secretary, 

Board of Governors of the Federal 

Reserve System, 20th Street and 

Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, 

DC 20551. 

All public comments are available 

from the Board’s Web site at http:// 

www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/ 

foia/ProposedRegs.cfm as submitted, 

unless modified for technical reasons. 

Accordingly, your comments will not be 

edited to remove any identifying or 

contact information. 

Public comments may also be viewed 

electronically or in paper in Room MP– 

500 of the Board’s Martin Building (20th 

and C Streets, NW.) between 9 a.m. and 

5 p.m. on weekdays. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Sophia H. Allison, Senior Counsel (202/ 

452–3565), or Dena L. Milligan, Staff 

Attorney (202/452–3900), Legal 

Division, or Seth Carpenter, Deputy 

Associate Director (202/452–2385), or 

Margaret Gillis DeBoer, Section Chief 

(202/452–3139), Division of Monetary 

Affairs; for users of 

Telecommunications Device for the Deaf 

(TDD) only, contact (202/263–4869); 

Board of Governors of the Federal 

Reserve System, 20th and C Streets, 

NW., Washington, DC 20551. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background—Interest on Reserves 

Section 128 of the Emergency 

Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, 

enacted on October 3, 2008 (the ‘‘2008 

Act’’), accelerated the effective date of 

the authority for the Reserve Banks to 

pay earnings on balances maintained at 

the Reserve Banks by or on behalf of 

depository institutions. The 2008 Act 

made this authority effective on October 

1, 2008. This authority was originally 

enacted in Title II of the Financial 

Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2006 

(the ‘‘2006 Act’’) (Pub. L. 109–351, 120 

Stat. 1966 (Oct. 13, 2006)), with an 

original effective date of October 1, 

2011. The 2006 Act provides that such 

earnings must be paid at least once each 

quarter at a rate or rates not to exceed 

the general level of short-term interest 

rates. The 2006 Act also provides that 

the Board may prescribe regulations 

concerning the payment of earnings, the 

distribution of earnings to the 

depository institutions that maintain 

balances or on whose behalf balances 

are maintained, and the responsibilities 

of correspondents to distribute and 

credit earnings on balances maintained 

by the respondent on a pass-through 

basis with the correspondent. 

On October 9, 2008, the Board 

published in the Federal Register an 

interim final rule amending Regulation 

D (Reserve Requirements of Depository 

Institutions) to direct the Reserve Banks 

to pay interest on balances held at 

Reserve Banks to satisfy reserve 

requirements (‘‘required reserve 

balances’’) and balances held in excess 

of required reserve balances and 

clearing balances (‘‘excess balances’’) 

(73 FR 59482) (Oct. 9, 2008). At that 

time, the Board announced two 

formulas by which the amount of 

earnings payable on required reserve 

balances and excess balances would be 

calculated. For required reserve 

balances, the Board set the initial 

formula for the rate of interest to be the 

average federal funds rate target 

established by the Federal Open Market 

Committee (the ‘‘FOMC’’) over the 

reserve maintenance period less 10 basis 

points. For excess balances, the Board 

set the initial formula for the rate of 

interest to be the lowest federal funds 

rate target established by the FOMC in 

effect during the reserve maintenance 

period minus 75 basis points. The Board 

stated that it might adjust the formula 

for the interest rate on excess balances 

in light of experience and evolving 

market conditions. The Board has 

subsequently adjusted the formula for 

the rate of interest for excess balances 

three times and the rate of interest on 

required reserve balances twice. The 

rate of interest on both required reserve 

balances and on excess balances 

currently is equal to 1⁄4 percent. The 

Board may from time to time determine 

any other rate or rates for such balances, 

which would be announced when 

determined. 


erowe on PROD1PC63 with PROPOSALS-1
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 19 / Friday, January 30, 2009 / Proposed Rules 5629 

1The 2006 Act amended section 19 of the Act to 

authorize member banks to enter into pass-through 

account arrangements. Prior to the 2006 Act, only 

nonmember banks were authorized to enter into 

such arrangements. See Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking, Request for Public Comment, 73 FR 

8009 (Feb. 12, 2008). 

2The same would be true of a correspondent that 

was not acting in a pass-through capacity: its entire 

account balance at the Reserve Bank would be an 

asset on the correspondent’s own balance sheet. 

Regulation D, however, does not specifically 

address correspondents other than pass-through 

correspondents. 

3The 2008 Act permits Federal Reserve Banks to 

pay interest on balances held by or on behalf of 

‘‘depository institutions,’’ but the 2008 Act’s 

definition of ‘‘depository institution’’ has a broader 

meaning than the definition of that term in section 

19(b)(1)(A) of the Act and Regulation D. Therefore, 

the Board believed that a different term would be 

useful to refer only to those institutions included 

in the 2008 Act’s broader definition of ‘‘depository 

institution.’’ In its October 9, 2008 notice of 

Continued 

II. Maintenance of Required Reserve 

Balances and Excess Balances 

Under Regulation D, a depository 

institution must maintain reserves 

against its reservable liabilities in the 

form of cash in its vault or, if vault cash 

is insufficient, in the form of a balance 

in an account at a Reserve Bank.1 12 

CFR 204.3(b)(1). A depository 

institution may maintain such balances 

in an account in its own name at a 

Reserve Bank, or it may choose a passthrough correspondent through which it 

may pass through its required reserve 

balance. The pass-through 

correspondent holds its respondents’ 

required reserve balances in an account 

of the correspondent at a Reserve Bank. 

Under Regulation D, the balance in a 

pass-through correspondent’s account at 

a Reserve Bank is deemed to be the 

property of the pass-through 

correspondent exclusively, and the 

account balance represents a liability of 

the Reserve Bank solely to the passthrough correspondent, regardless of 

whether the funds represent the 

required reserve balances of another 

institution that have been passed 

through the pass-through 

correspondent. 12 CFR 204.3(i)(2). 

Under the Board’s October interim 

final rule, any excess balances in a passthrough correspondent’s account are 

deemed to be balances held on behalf of 

its respondents. Reserve Banks credit 

the pass-through correspondent’s 

account with the interest on the 

required reserve balances and excess 

balances of the pass-through 

correspondent’s respondents. The 

October interim final rule permits, but 

does not require, correspondents to pass 

back the interest earned to their 

respondents. 

III. Implications in the Current Market 

Environment 

The respondents of a pass-through 

correspondent can, by agreement with 

the correspondent, receive earnings on 

their excess balances by directing the 

correspondent to sell those balances in 

the federal funds market, or by having 

the correspondent hold those balances 

in the correspondent’s account at a 

Reserve Bank under a pass-through 

arrangement. These two approaches 

have different implications for the 

correspondent’s balance sheet and its 

leverage ratio for capital adequacy 

purposes. 

As noted above, Regulation D 

currently deems the entire balance in a 

pass-through correspondent’s account at 

a Reserve Bank to be the exclusive 

property of the pass-through 

correspondent and to represent a 

liability of that Reserve Bank to the 

pass-through correspondent exclusively. 

Therefore, the pass-through 

correspondent must show the entire 

balance in its Reserve Bank account on 

its own balance sheet as an asset, even 

if the balance consists, in whole or in 

part, of amounts that are passed through 

on behalf of a respondent.2

Accordingly, when a correspondent’s 

respondents want to earn interest on 

excess balances by leaving them with 

their correspondent (which in turn 

passes those balances through to the 

Reserve Bank), the correspondent has a 

larger balance at the Reserve Bank. As 

a result, the correspondent has more 

assets on its balance sheet and a lower 

leverage ratio for capital adequacy 

purposes. 

In contrast, when the correspondent 

sells the respondent’s federal funds on 

the respondent’s behalf, the respondent 

directs its correspondent to transfer 

funds to the entity purchasing federal 

funds. This transaction is effected by a 

debit to the correspondent’s account at 

a Reserve Bank and a credit to the 

purchaser’s account at a Reserve Bank. 

On the correspondent’s balance sheet, 

all other things being equal, the 

correspondent’s assets decline (as does 

its liability to its respondent) because 

the correspondent’s account balance at 

the Reserve Bank is lower and therefore 

its regulatory leverage ratio would be 

higher. 

Since the implementation of interest 

on excess balances through the October 

interim final rule, the actual federal 

funds rate has generally averaged 

significantly below the interest rate paid 

by the Reserve Banks on excess 

balances, although this spread narrowed 

significantly after the FOMC established 

a range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 

1⁄4 percent on December 16. When the 

market rate of interest on federal funds 

is below the rate paid by the Reserve 

Banks on excess balances, respondents 

have an incentive to shift the 

investment of their surplus funds away 

from sales of federal funds (through 

their correspondents acting as agents), 

and toward holding funds directly as 

excess balances with the Reserve Banks, 

potentially disrupting established 

correspondent-respondent relationships. 

A correspondent could offer to purchase 

federal funds directly from its 

respondents and hold those funds as 

excess balances at a Reserve Bank; 

however, such transactions could result 

in a significant reduction in regulatory 

leverage ratios for some correspondents. 

The Board believes that the disparity 

between the actual federal funds rate 

and the rate paid by Reserve Banks on 

excess balances may partly be caused by 

the leverage incentives imposed on 

correspondent institutions to sell excess 

balances into the federal funds market 

rather than maintaining those balances 

in an account at a Reserve Bank. 

IV. EBA Proposal 

The Board is proposing to authorize 

the establishment of EBAs to reduce 

disruptions in established relationships 

between correspondents and their 

respondents that would result from a 

shift by those respondents away from 

federal funds sales and toward holding 

excess balances in individual accounts 

at the Reserve Banks. These disruptions 

appear to be directly related to the 

current configuration of interest rates 

and the unprecedented volume of 

excess balances provided through the 

Federal Reserve’s open market 

operations and liquidity facilities. When 

more normal market functioning 

resumes, the Board would re-evaluate 

the continuing need for EBAs. 

The Board proposes to authorize 

EBAs with the following characteristics. 

A. Account Structure 

EBAs would be established by the 

EBA Participants. One possible 

application of this structure would be 

that the respondent institutions of a 

particular correspondent could become 

EBA Participants by establishing an 

EBA for the maintenance overnight of 

their aggregate excess balances. The 

EBA would be established at the 

Reserve Bank where the EBA Agent 

(discussed below) maintains its own 

master account. All EBA Participants 

would be required to be the type of 

institution that is eligible, as defined in 

the 2008 Act, to receive interest on their 

excess balances.3 Any eligible 

institution could be an EBA Participant. 


erowe on PROD1PC63 with PROPOSALS-1
5630 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 19 / Friday, January 30, 2009 / Proposed Rules 

proposed rulemaking, the Board proposed using the 

term ‘‘eligible institution’’ to refer to institutions 

that are eligible to receive interest on their balances 

maintained at Federal Reserve Banks. ‘‘Eligible 

institution’’ includes the depository institutions 

defined in section 19(b)(1)(A) of the Act, including 

banks, savings associations, savings banks and 

credit unions that are federally insured or eligible 

to apply for federal insurance. ‘‘Eligible institution’’ 

also includes trust companies, Edge and agreement 

corporations, and U.S. agencies and branches of 

foreign banks. The definition does not include all 

entities for which the Reserve Banks hold accounts, 

such as entities for which the Reserve Banks act as 

fiscal agents, including Federal Home Loan Banks. 

As noted above, Regulation D 

currently provides that balances in a 

pass-through correspondent’s account at 

a Reserve Bank represent a liability of 

the Reserve Bank solely to that passthrough correspondent, even though 

that account may also contain funds that 

are attributable to one or more of the 

pass-through correspondent’s 

respondent institutions. With the EBA, 

however, all balances in the EBA would 

be deemed to be the property solely of 

the EBA Participants, and to represent a 

liability of the Reserve Bank to the EBA 

Participants alone and not to the EBA 

Agent. Because the excess balances of 

EBA Participants in EBAs would be the 

Reserve Bank’s direct liability to the 

EBA Participants, the adverse leverage 

impact of such arrangements on 

correspondents would be mitigated. 

B. Authority to Manage Account 

The EBA Participants of an EBA 

would be required to authorize one 

institution (which may or may not be an 

‘‘eligible institution’’ but that must have 

its own account at a Reserve Bank) to 

manage the EBA on behalf of the EBA 

Participants, including giving 

instructions for the transfer of EBA 

Participants’ excess balances in and out 

of the EBA. The EBA Agent would not 

be allowed to commingle its own funds 

in the EBA. The EBA Agent would be 

required to have its own account at a 

Federal Reserve Bank. The EBA Agent 

could be, but need not be, a 

correspondent institution that serves the 

EBA Participants as its respondents 

under a correspondent, or pass-through 

correspondent, arrangement. This EBA 

Agent would be authorized to place 

EBA Participant excess balances into the 

EBA, remove those excess balances, and 

generally manage the EBA (which may 

include facilitating the opening of the 

EBA on behalf of EBA Participants). The 

EBA Agent would be responsible for 

determining amounts of excess balances 

to deposit into the EBA and for 

maintaining adequate records to 

demonstrate the level of excess balances 

in the EBA of each EBA Participant. The 

Reserve Banks would calculate interest 

on an EBA on an aggregate basis and 

would not calculate an interest amount 

for each EBA Participant. The EBA 

Participants would be responsible for 

instructing the EBA Agent with respect 

to the disposition of the interest and the 

balances, of the EBA Participant in the 

EBA—presumably within the context of 

any applicable correspondentrespondent agreement, taking into 

account all of the services and other 

terms and conditions of the 

relationship. 

C. Limited-Purpose Properties of 

Account 

The EBA would exist for the sole 

purpose of holding excess balances of 

EBA Participants, generally on an 

overnight basis. The EBA would not be 

permitted to be overdrawn at any time, 

either intra-day or overnight. Balances 

maintained overnight in an EBA would 

not satisfy a required reserve balance or 

a contractual clearing balance for any 

EBA Participant or for the EBA Agent. 

The EBA could not be used for general 

payments or other activities. 

D. Payment of Interest on EBAs 

Excess balances maintained in an 

EBA would earn interest at the excess 

balances rate specified in section 

204.10(b)(2) of Regulation D. The 

Board’s interim final rule published in 

the Federal Register on October 9 

defines ‘‘excess balances’’ as an 

institution’s balances in an account at a 

Reserve Bank in excess of the 

institution’s required reserve balance 

(which may be zero) and the 

institution’s contractual clearing 

balance (if any). The October 9 interim 

final rule also provides that interest on 

required reserve balances and excess 

balances is credited to eligible 

institutions 15 days after the close of the 

applicable reserve maintenance period. 

Under Regulation D, the reserve 

maintenance period is the period during 

which a depository institution must 

maintain, on average, its required 

reserve balance. For institutions with 

reservable liabilities below the 

exemption amount or those with only a 

contractual clearing balance, the reserve 

maintenance period is one week long. 

The Board would compute average 

balances in an EBA during a one-week 

maintenance period that begins on 

Thursday and ends the following 

Wednesday and would credit interest to 

the EBA fifteen (15) days after the close 

of the one-week maintenance period. 

The EBA Agent would be responsible 

for disbursing interest in the EBA in 

accordance with the directions given by 

each EBA Participant to the EBA Agent 

for such disbursements. 

V. Section-by-Section Analysis 

Section 204.10(d)(6) 

Proposed section 204.10(d)(6) adds a 

new subsection to section 204.10(d), 

which sets forth definitions relating to 

the payment of interest on reserves and 

other balances maintained at Reserve 

Banks. Proposed section 204.10(d)(6) 

adds the term ‘‘excess balance account’’ 

as a defined term in Regulation D. 

Section 204.10(d) defines ‘‘excess 

balance account’’ as an account at a 

Reserve Bank established by one or 

more eligible institutions and in which 

only excess balances of the participating 

eligible institutions may at any time be 

maintained. Proposed section 

204.10(d)(6) also clarifies that such an 

account is not a ‘‘pass-through account’’ 

for purposes of Regulation D. This 

clarification is appropriate because a 

pass-through account represents a 

liability of a Reserve Bank solely to a 

correspondent institution, whereas the 

liability represented by an EBA 

represents a liability of the Reserve 

Bank solely to the institutions whose 

excess balances are maintained in the 

EBA. 

Section 204.10(e)(1) 

Proposed section 204.10(e)(1) 

provides that eligible institutions may 

establish an EBA at a Reserve Bank 

when the EBA is (A) established by the 

eligible institutions and is (B) 

established solely for the purpose of 

maintaining overnight excess balances 

of the participating eligible institutions. 

Proposed section 204.10(e)(1) also 

provides that balances maintained in 

such an account are the property of the 

eligible institutions that participate in 

the EBA, and represent a liability of the 

Reserve Bank solely to those 

institutions. Proposed section 

204.10(e)(1) is intended to distinguish 

such account arrangements from the 

definition and operation of the term 

‘‘pass-through account’’ elsewhere in 

Regulation D. 

Section 204.10(e)(2) 

Proposed section 204.10(e)(2) sets 

forth the regulatory provisions relating 

to the appointment and authorization of 

an EBA Agent to manage an EBA on 

behalf of EBA Participants. The EBA 

Agent must have its own account at a 

Reserve Bank unless otherwise 

determined by the Board. Proposed 

section 204.10(e)(2) also provides that 

an EBA Agent must not commingle any 

of its own funds in an EBA at any time, 

either intra-day or overnight. 


erowe on PROD1PC63 with PROPOSALS-1
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 19 / Friday, January 30, 2009 / Proposed Rules 5631 

Section 204.10(e)(3) 

Proposed section 204.10(e)(3) 

specifies that balances maintained in an 

EBA must consist solely of excess 

balances of EBA Participants, and that 

such balances will not satisfy any 

institution’s required reserve balance or 

contractual clearing balance. 

Section 204.10(e)(4) 

Proposed section 204.10(e)(4) 

specifies that an EBA is for the 

exclusive purpose of maintaining EBA 

Participants’ excess balances and is not 

be used for general payments or other 

activities. 

Section 204.10(e)(5) 

Proposed section 204.10(e)(5) 

provides that balances in an EBA would 

earn interest at the rate specified for 

‘‘excess balances’’ in current section 

204.10(b)(2) of Regulation D. 

VI. Form of Comment Letters 

Comment letters should refer to 

Docket No. R–1350 and, when possible, 

should use a standard typeface with a 

font size of 10 or 12; this will enable the 

Board to convert text submitted in paper 

form to machine-readable form through 

electronic scanning, and will facilitate 

automated retrieval of comments for 

review. Comments may be mailed 

electronically to 

regs.comments@federalreserve.gov. 

VII. Solicitation of Comments 

Regarding Use of ‘‘Plain Language’’ 

Section 722 of the Gramm-LeachBliley Act of 1999 (12 U.S.C. 4809) 

requires the Board to use ‘‘plain 

language’’ in all proposed and final 

rules published after January 1, 2000. 

The Board invites comments on whether 

the interim final rule is clearly stated 

and effectively organized, and how the 

Board might make the text of the rule 

easier to understand. 

VIII. Regulatory Flexibility Act 

The Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 

U.S.C. 601 et seq. (RFA), requires an 

agency that is issuing a proposed rule to 

prepare and make available an initial 

regulatory flexibility analysis that 

describes the impact of the final rule on 

small entities. 5 U.S.C. 603(a). The RFA 

provides that an agency is not required 

to prepare and publish a regulatory 

flexibility analysis if the agency certifies 

that the final rule will not have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities. 

Pursuant to section 605(b) of the RFA, 

the Board certifies that this interim final 

rule will not have a significant adverse 

economic impact on a substantial 

number of small entities. The proposed 

rule would permit, but does not require, 

institutions to establish EBAs at Reserve 

Banks. The impact on institutions 

choosing to establish EBAs at Reserve 

Banks would be positive and not 

adverse, because EBA Participants 

would be able to earn the rate payable 

on excess balances in a debtor-creditor 

relationship directly with a Reserve 

Bank without disrupting established 

correspondent-respondent relationships. 

Likewise, the impact would be positive 

and not adverse on institutions that 

choose to establish EBAs but are not 

currently in a correspondent-respondent 

relationship, as such institutions would 

be expected to establish EBAs only to 

the extent that EBA Agents and EBA 

Participants found it mutually beneficial 

to do so. 

IX. Paperwork Reduction Act 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 

3506; 5 CFR 1320 Appendix A.1), the 

Board reviewed the proposed rule under 

the authority delegated to the Board by 

the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB). The proposed rule contains no 

requirements subject to the PRA. 

List of Subjects in 12 CFR Part 204 

Banks, banking, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements. 

Authority and Issuance 

For the reasons set forth in the 

preamble, the Board is proposing to 

amend 12 CFR part 204 as follows: 

PART 204—RESERVE 

REQUIREMENTS OF DEPOSITORY 

INSTITUTIONS (REGULATION D) 

1. The authority citation for part 204 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 12 U.S.C. 248(a), 248(c), 371a, 

461, 601, 611, and 6105. 

2. Section 204.10 is amended by 

adding new paragraphs (d)(6) and (e) to 

read as follows: 

§ 204.10 Payment of interest on balances. 

* * * * * 

(d) * * * 

(6) Excess balance account means an 

account at a Reserve Bank pursuant to 

§ 204.10(e) of this part that is 

established by one or more eligible 

institutions and in which only excess 

balances of the participating eligible 

institutions may at any time be 

maintained. An excess balance account 

is not a ‘‘pass-through account’’ for 

purposes of this part. 

(e) Excess balance accounts. (1) 

Establishing an excess balance account. 

A Reserve Bank may establish an excess 

balance account for eligible institutions 

under the provisions of this paragraph. 

Notwithstanding any other provisions of 

this part, the excess balances of eligible 

institutions in an excess balance 

account are the property of the eligible 

institutions that participate in the 

account, and represent a liability of the 

Reserve Bank solely to those 

participating eligible institutions. 

(2) The participating eligible 

institutions in an excess balance 

account shall authorize another 

institution to act as agent of the eligible 

institutions for purposes of general 

account management, including but not 

limited to transferring the excess 

balances of participating institutions in 

and out of the excess balance account. 

The agent must maintain its own 

separate account at a Reserve Bank 

unless otherwise determined by the 

Board. The agent may not commingle its 

own funds in the excess balance 

account. 

(3) No reserve balances or clearing 

balances of any institution may be 

maintained at any time in an excess 

balance account, and balances 

maintained in an excess balance 

account will not satisfy any institution’s 

required reserve balance or contractual 

clearing balance. 

(4) An excess balance account may be 

used exclusively for the purpose of 

maintaining the excess balances of 

participants and may not be used for 

general payments or other activities. 

(5) Interest shall be paid on excess 

balances of eligible institutions 

maintained in an excess balance 

account in accordance with 

§ 204.10(b)(2) of this part. 

By order of the Board of Governors of the 

Federal Reserve System, January 25, 2009. 

Jennifer J. Johnson, 

Secretary of the Board. 

[FR Doc. E9–1996 Filed 1–29–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6210–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

National Park Service 

36 CFR Part 7 

Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory 

Committee for Off-Road Vehicle 

Management for Cape Hatteras 

National Seashore 

AGENCY: National Park Service (NPS), 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of Thirteenth Meeting. 

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given, in 

accordance with the Federal Advisory 

Committee Act (Pub. L. 92–463, 86 Stat. 

770, 5 U.S.C. App 1, section 10), of the 


erowe on PROD1PC63 with PROPOSALS-1