12 C.F.R. § 204.3 Computation and maintenance.
Title 12 - Banks and Banking
(a) Maintenance and reporting of required reserves—(1) Maintenance. A depository institution, a U.S. branch or agency of a foreign bank, and an Edge or Agreement corporation shall maintain reserves against its deposits and Eurocurrency liabilities in accordance with the procedures prescribed in this section and §204.4 and the ratios prescribed in §204.9. Reserve-deficiency charges shall be assessed for deficiencies in required reserves in accordance with the provisions of §204.7. For purposes of this part, the obligations of a majority-owned (50 percent or more) U.S. subsidiary (except an Edge or Agreement corporation) of a depository institution shall be regarded as obligations of the parent depository institution. (2) Reporting. (i) Every depository institution, U.S. branch or agency of a foreign bank, and Edge or Agreement corporation shall file a report of deposits (or any other required form or statement) directly with the Federal Reserve Bank of its District, regardless of the manner in which it chooses to maintain required reserve balances. A foreign bank's U.S. branches and agencies and an Edge or Agreement corporation's offices operating within the same state and the same Federal Reserve District shall prepare and file a report of deposits on an aggregated basis. (ii) A Federal Reserve Bank shall notify the reporting institution of its reserve requirements. Where a pass-through arrangement exists, the Reserve Bank will also notify the pass-through correspondent of its respondent's required reserve balances. (iii) The Board and the Federal Reserve Banks will not hold a pass-through correspondent responsible for guaranteeing the accuracy of the reports of deposits submitted by its respondents. (3) Allocation of low reserve tranche and exemption from reserve requirements. A depository institution, a foreign bank, or an Edge or Agreement corporation shall, if possible, assign the low reserve tranche and reserve requirement exemption prescribed in §204.9(a) to only one office or to a group of offices filing a single aggregated report of deposits. The amount of the reserve requirement exemption allocated to an office or group of offices may not exceed the amount of the low reserve tranche allocated to such office or offices. If the low reserve tranche or reserve requirement exemption cannot be fully utilized by a single office or by a group of offices filing a single report of deposits, the unused portion of the tranche or exemption may be assigned to other offices or groups of offices of the same institution until the amount of the tranche (or net transaction accounts) or exemption (or reservable liabilities) is exhausted. The tranche or exemption may be reallocated each year concurrent with implementation of the indexed tranche and exemption, or, if necessary during the course of the year to avoid underutilization of the tranche or exemption, at the beginning of a reserve computation period. (b) Form and location of reserves. (1) A depository institution, a U.S. branch or agency of a foreign bank, and an Edge or Agreement corporation shall hold reserves in the form of vault cash, a balance maintained directly with the Federal Reserve Bank in the Federal Reserve District in which it is located, or, in the case of nonmember institutions, with a pass-through correspondent in accordance with §204.3(i). (2) (i) For purposes of this section, a depository institution, a U.S. branch or agency of a foreign bank, or an Edge or Agreement corporation is located in the Federal Reserve District that contains the location specified in the institution's charter, organizing certificate, or license or, if no such location is specified, the location of its head office, unless otherwise determined by the Board under paragraph (b)(2)(ii) of this section. (ii) If the location specified in paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section, in the Board's judgment, is ambiguous, would impede the ability of the Board or the Federal Reserve Banks to perform their functions under the Federal Reserve Act, or would impede the ability of the institution to operate efficiently, the Board will determine the Federal Reserve District in which the institution is located, after consultation with the institution and the relevant Federal Reserve Banks. The relevant Federal Reserve Banks are the Federal Reserve Bank whose District contains the location specified in paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section and the Federal Reserve Bank in whose District the institution is proposed to be located. In making this determination, the Board will consider any applicable laws, the business needs of the institution, the location of the institution's head office, the locations where the institution performs its business, and the locations that would allow the institution, the Board, and the Federal Reserve Banks to perform their functions efficiently and effectively. (c) Computation of required reserves for institutions that report on a weekly basis. (1) Required reserves are computed on the basis of daily average balances of deposits and Eurocurrency liabilities during a 14-day period ending every second Monday (the computation period). Reserve requirements are computed by applying the ratios prescribed in §204.9 to the classes of deposits and Eurocurrency liabilities of the institution. In determining the reserve balance that is required to be maintained with the Federal Reserve, the average daily vault cash held during the computation period is deducted from the amount of the institution's required reserves. (2) The reserve balance that is required to be maintained with the Federal Reserve shall be maintained during a 14-day period (the “maintenance period”) that begins on the third Thursday following the end of a given computation period. (d) Computation of required reserves for institutions that report on a quarterly basis. For a depository institution that is permitted to report quarterly, required reserves are computed on the basis of the depository institution's daily average deposit balances during a seven-day computation period that begins on the third Tuesday of March, June, September, and December. In determining the reserve balance that such a depository institution is required to maintain with the Federal Reserve, the daily average vault cash held during the computation period is deducted from the amount of the institution's required reserves. The reserve balance that is required to be maintained with the Federal Reserve shall be maintained during a corresponding period that begins on the fourth Thursday following the end of the institution's computation period and ends on the fourth Wednesday after the close of the institution's next computation period. (e) Computation of transaction accounts. Overdrafts in demand deposit or other transaction accounts are not to be treated as negative demand deposits or negative transaction accounts and shall not be netted since overdrafts are properly reflected on an institution's books as assets. However, where a customer maintains multiple transaction accounts with a depository institution, overdrafts in one account pursuant to a bona fide cash management arrangement are permitted to be netted against balances in other related transaction accounts for reserve requirement purposes. (f) Deductions allowed in computing reserves. (1) In determining the reserve balance required under this part, the amount of cash items in process of collection and balances subject to immediate withdrawal due from other depository institutions located in the United States (including such amounts due from United States branches and agencies of foreign banks and Edge and agreement corporations) may be deducted from the amount of gross transaction accounts. The amount that may be deducted may not exceed the amount of gross transaction accounts. (2) United States branches and agencies of a foreign bank may not deduct balances due from another United States branch or agency of the same foreign bank, and United States offices of an Edge or Agreement Corporation may not deduct balances due from another United States office of the same Edge Corporation. (3) Balances “due from other depository institutions” do not include balances due from Federal Reserve Banks, pass through accounts, or balances (payable in dollars or otherwise) due from banking offices located outside the United States. An institution exercising fiduciary powers may not include in “balances due from other depository institutions” amounts of trust funds deposited with other banks and due to it as a trustee or other fiduciary. (g) Availability of cash items as reserves. Cash items forwarded to a Federal Reserve Bank for collection and credit shall not be counted as part of the reserve balance to be carried with the Federal Reserve until the expiration of the time specified in the appropriate time schedule established under Regulation J, “Collection of Checks and Other Items and Transfers of Funds” (12 CFR part 210). If a depository institution draws against items before that time, the charge will be made to its reserve account if the balance is sufficient to pay it; any resulting impairment of reserve balances will be subject to the penalties provided by law and to the reserve deficiency charges provided by this part. However, the Federal Reserve Bank may, at its discretion, refuse to permit the withdrawal or other use of credit given in a reserve account for any time for which the Federal Reserve bank has not received payment in actually and finally collected funds. (h) Carryover of excesses or deficiencies. Any excess or deficiency in a depository institution's account that is held directly or indirectly with a Federal Reserve Bank shall be carried over and applied to that account in the next maintenance period as specified in this paragraph. The amount of any such excess or deficiency that is carried over shall not exceed the greater of: (1) The amount obtained by multiplying .04 times the sum of the depository institution's required reserves and the depository institution's required clearing balance, if any, and then subtracting from this product the depository institution's required charge-free band, if any; or (2) $50,000, minus the depository institution's required charge-free band, if any. Any carryover not offset during the next period may not be carried over to subsequent periods. (i) Pass-through rules—(1) Procedure. (i) A nonmember depository institution, a U.S. branch or agency of a foreign bank, or an Edge or Agreement corporation required to maintain reserve balances (respondent) may select only one institution to pass through its required reserve balances, unless otherwise permitted by Federal Reserve Bank in whose district the respondent is located. Eligible institutions through which respondent required reserve balances may be passed (correspondents) are Federal Home Loan Banks, the National Credit Union Administration Central Liquidity Facility, and depository institutions, U.S. branches or agencies of foreign banks, and Edge and Agreement corporations that maintain required reserve balances at a Federal Reserve office. In addition, the Board reserves the right to permit other institutions, on a case-by-case basis, to serve as pass-through correspondents. The correspondent chosen must subsequently pass through the required reserve balances of its respondents directly to a Federal Reserve Bank. The correspondent placing funds with a Federal Reserve Bank on behalf of respondents will be responsible for account maintenance as described in paragraphs (i)(2) and (i)(3) of this section. (ii) Respondents or correspondents may institute, terminate, or change pass-through arrangements for the maintenance of required reserve balances by providing all documentation required for the establishment of the new arrangement or termination of the existing arrangement to the Federal Reserve Banks involved within the time period provided for such a change by those Reserve Banks. (2) Account maintenance. A correspondent that passes through required reserve balances of respondents shall maintain such balances, along with the correspondent's own required reserve balances (if any), in a single commingled account at the Federal Reserve Bank in whose District the correspondent is located, unless otherwise permitted by the Reserve Bank. The balances held by the correspondent in an account at a Reserve Bank are the property of the correspondent and represent a liability of the Reserve Bank solely to the correspondent, regardless of whether the funds represent the reserve balances of another institution that have been passed through the correspondent. (3) Responsibilities of parties. (i) Each individual depository institution, U.S. branch or agency of a foreign bank, or Edge or Agreement corporation is responsible for maintaining its required reserve balance either directly with a Federal Reserve Bank or through a pass-through correspondent. (ii) A pass-through correspondent shall be responsible for assuring the maintenance of the appropriate aggregate level of its respondents' required reserve balances. A Federal Reserve Bank will compare the total reserve balance required to be maintained in each account with the total actual reserve balance held in such account for purposes of determining required reserve deficiencies, imposing or waiving charges for deficiencies in required reserves, and for other reserve maintenance purposes. A charge for a deficiency in the aggregate level of the required reserve balance will be imposed by the Reserve Bank on the correspondent maintaining the account. (iii) Each correspondent is required to maintain detailed records for each of its respondents in a manner that permits Federal Reserve Banks to determine whether the respondent has provided a sufficient required reserve balance to the correspondent. A correspondent passing through a respondent's reserve balance shall maintain records and make such reports as the Board or Reserve Bank requires in order to insure the correspondent's compliance with its responsibilities for the maintenance of a respondent's reserve balance. Such records shall be available to the Reserve Banks as required. (iv) The Federal Reserve Bank may terminate any pass-through relationship in which the correspondent is deficient in its recordkeeping or other responsibilities. (v) Interest paid on supplemental reserves (if such reserves are required under §204.6) held by a respondent will be credited to the account maintained by the correspondent. [45 FR 56018, Aug. 22, 1980, as amended at 45 FR 58100, Sept. 2, 1980; 45 FR 81537, Dec. 11, 1980; 46 FR 32430, June 23, 1981; 47 FR 44707, Oct. 12, 1982; 47 FR 55206, Dec. 8, 1982; 48 FR 17335, 17336, Apr. 22, 1983; 51 FR 9635, Mar. 20, 1986; 55 FR 50541, Dec. 7, 1990; 57 FR 38417, 38427, Aug. 25, 1992; 61 FR 69025, Dec. 31, 1996; 62 FR 34616, June 27, 1997; 62 FR 59778, Nov. 5, 1997; 63 FR 15071, Mar. 30, 1998]
Title 12: Banks and Banking
PART 204—RESERVE REQUIREMENTS OF DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS (REGULATION D)
§ 204.3 Computation and maintenance.
