the comptroller of the currency, and the federal deposit insurance corporation — to encourage banks to help meet the credit needs of the communities they are chartered to serve, including low - and moderate - income neighborhoods. to complement the work we do with the other regulators to write regulations and guidance implementing cra, the federal reserve system ’ s community development staff help banks understand and meet their responsibilities under the law. fed staff members also act as liaisons between banks and community organizations to identify local community development needs and solutions. i know that you all are very interested in the agencies ’ activities related to possible revisions to the current cra regulations. my colleague, governor brainard, who represents the board in our interagency cra discussions, will be speaking to you tomorrow, so i will leave it to her to discuss our efforts in detail. but i do want to express my support for an interagency effort to revise the regulations to promote clarity and consistency in our evaluations of banks, particularly in light of the changes in the way bank products and services are delivered. we value the cra ’ s role in meeting the credit needs of low - and moderate - income neighborhoods and want to be very careful that any revisions serve to strengthen the cra ’ s purpose. 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches i commend your dedication to ensuring that all americans have fair access to the economic opportunities that our nation offers. i hope you have a productive conference, and i look forward to our ongoing conversation about how the federal reserve can help. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

amounts to a total of around sek 1, 900 billion, according to the national accounts. here we are referring to total debt as a percentage of annual disposable income. bis central bankers ’ speeches how could various measures be expected to influence expenditure – in terms of direct loan costs, such as interest, and other loan - related cash flows, such as amortisation payments – for these households? we can assume for the sake of simplicity that the interest rate on the mortgage loan is initially 4 per cent for all households. we also assume that our households have a variable interest rate, that they do not amortise their loans at all and that they have no savings. capital buffers have limited effects on wallets one of the more accepted macroprudential policy tools is the so - called countercyclical capital buffers, which are being introduced as a result of the new basel regulatory framework. this means that it will be possible to make an extra capital adequacy demand of the banks in good ( read : overheated ) times that can be reduced again in less good times. say that the banks are now subjected to countercyclical capital buffers and increase their capital adequacy ratio by a total of 2. 5 percentage points. say also that the banks pass on all of the cost for the increased capital adequacy requirement to their mortgage customers. an increase in the capital buffer of 2. 5 per cent could then, under slightly simplifying assumptions, be translated into an increase in the banks ’ lending rate of around 0. 2 percentage points at most. 18 higher capital adequacy thus reduces the risk taken by shareholders and other financiers and should thus lead to a reduction in the banks ’ yield requirements and borrowing costs. the increase in lending rates could therefore also be lower. for the family in upplands vasby, this means that interest expenditure increases by sek 204 per month after tax. for the family in lulea, with a slightly smaller mortgage, the increase is sek 128 per month after tax. for the family in stockholm with the larger mortgage, interest expenditure increase by sek 461 per month after tax. expressed as a percentage of disposable income, the countercyclical capital buffers entail higher loans costs for our households corresponding to 0. 3 – 0. 8 per cent of their disposable incomes. these relatively marginal effects on the wallet will