12 C.F.R. § 652.10 Investment management and requirements.
Title 12 - Banks and Banking
(a) Investment policies—board responsibilities. Your board of directors must adopt written policies for managing your non-program investment activities. Your board must also ensure that management complies with these policies and that appropriate internal controls are in place to prevent loss. At least annually, your board, or a designated subcommittee of the board, must review these investment policies. Any changes to the policies must be adopted by the board. You must report any changes to these policies to FCA's Office of Secondary Market Oversight within 10 business days of adoption. (b) Investment policies—general requirements. Your investment policies must address the purposes and objectives of investments, risk tolerance, delegations of authority, exception parameters, securities valuation, internal controls, and reporting requirements. Furthermore, the policies must address the means for reporting, and approvals needed for, exceptions to established policies. Investment policies must be sufficiently detailed, consistent with, and appropriate for the amounts, types, and risk characteristics of your investments. (c) Investment policies—risk tolerance. Your investment policies must establish risk limits and diversification requirements for the various classes of eligible investments and for the entire investment portfolio. These policies must ensure that you maintain prudent diversification of your investment portfolio. Risk limits must be based on the Corporation's objectives, capital position, and risk tolerance. Your policies must identify the types and quantity of investments that you will hold to achieve your objectives and control credit, market, liquidity, and operational risks. Your policies must establish risk limits for the following four types of risk: (1) Credit risk. Your investment policies must establish: (i) Credit quality standards, limits on counterparty risk, and risk diversification standards that limit concentrations based on a single or related counterparty(ies), a geographical area, industries or obligations with similar characteristics. (ii) Criteria for selecting brokers, dealers, and investment bankers (collectively, securities firms). You must buy and sell eligible investments with more than one securities firm. As part of your annual review of your investment policies, your board of directors, or a designated subcommittee of the board, must review the criteria for selecting securities firms. Any changes to the criteria must be approved by the board. Also, as part of your annual review, the board, or a designated subcommittee of the board, must review existing relationships with securities firms. In addition, the board, or a designated subcommittee of the board, must be notified before any changes to securities firms are made. (iii) Collateral margin requirements on repurchase agreements. You must regularly mark the collateral to market and ensure appropriate controls are maintained over collateral held. (2) Market risk. Your investment policies must set market risk limits for specific types of investments, and for the investment portfolio or for Farmer Mac generally. Your board of directors must establish market risk limits in accordance with these regulations (including, but not limited to, §§652.15 and 652.40) and our other policies and guidance. You must document in the Corporation's records or minutes any analyses used in formulating your policies or amendments to the policies. (3) Liquidity risk. Your investment policies must describe the liquidity characteristics of eligible investments that you will hold to meet your liquidity needs and the Corporation's objectives. (4) Operational risk. Investment policies must address operational risks, including delegations of authority and internal controls in accordance with paragraphs (d) and (e) of this section. (d) Delegation of authority. All delegations of authority to specified personnel or committees must state the extent of management's authority and responsibilities for investments. (e) Internal controls. You must: (1) Establish appropriate internal controls to detect and prevent loss, fraud, embezzlement, conflicts of interest, and unauthorized investments. (2) Establish and maintain a separation of duties and supervision between personnel who execute investment transactions and personnel who approve, revaluate, and oversee investments. (3) Maintain records and management information systems that are appropriate for the level and complexity of your investment activities. (f) Securities valuations. (1) Before you purchase a security, you must evaluate its credit quality and price sensitivity to changes in market interest rates. You must also verify the value of a security that you plan to purchase, other than a new issue, with a source that is independent of the broker, dealer, counterparty, or other intermediary to the transaction. Your investment policies must fully address the extent of the prepurchase analysis that management needs to perform for various classes of instruments. For example, you should specifically describe the stress tests in §652.40 that must be performed on various types of mortgage securities. (2) At least monthly, you must determine the fair market value of each security in your portfolio and the fair market value of your whole investment portfolio. In doing so you must also evaluate the credit quality and price sensitivity to the change in market interest rates of each security in your portfolio and your whole investment portfolio. (3) Before you sell a security, you must verify its value with a source that is independent of the broker, dealer, counterparty, or other intermediary to the transaction. (g) Reports to the board of directors. At least quarterly, Farmer Mac's management must report to the Corporation's board of directors, or a designated subcommittee of the board: (1) On the performance and risk of each class of investments and the entire investment portfolio; (2) All gains and losses that you incur during the quarter on individual securities that you sold before maturity and why they were liquidated; (3) Potential risk exposure to changes in market interest rates and any other factors that may affect the value of your investment holdings; (4) How investments affect your overall financial condition; (5) Whether the performance of the investment portfolio effectively achieves the board's objectives; and (6) Any deviations from the board's policies. These deviations must be formally approved by the board of directors.
Title 12: Banks and Banking
PART 652—FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION FUNDING AND FISCAL AFFAIRS
Subpart A—Investment Management
§ 652.10 Investment management and requirements.
