Federal banking regulators have issued updated guidance on the forthcoming public disclosure requirements for bank leverage ratios.
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) published revised guidance Monday for banks, which will face new disclosure requirements starting Jan. 1, 2015, in connection to Basel III leverage ratio rules that were finalized earlier this year by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Those rules introduce a new leverage ratio requirement that is designed to be simple, transparent, and is not risk-based, to accompany the risk-based capital requirements that banks face.
OSFI will require banks that are considered to be domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) to fully implement the new leverage ratio disclosures starting with their reporting for the first quarter of 2015. Banks that aren’t considered systemically important will have until the end of 2015 to fully implement the disclosures.
So-called D-SIBs will be required to report a reconciliation of their balance sheet assets with their leverage ratio; provide a breakdown of the main leverage ratio components and, to disclose the source of any material differences between their total balance sheet assets and their on-balance sheet exposures. They will also have to explain the key drivers of material changes in their Basel III leverage ratio. The requirements for non-D-SIBs are less extensive.