Professional Documents
Culture Documents
tive: It Really Is Business as Usual Regulation W Simplify • Fed Implements Two Banks: What Are
• Fed Announce Enhancements to Compliance for Bankers Lending Programs Examiners Finding?
FedLine® for the Web
SPRING 2003
Little Rock and Louisville will vices company—to analyze the St. Louis Fed First Vice President
www.stlouisfed.org
continue processing checks until Fed System’s existing check LeGrande Rives offers Fed cus-
sometime in late 2004. At that infrastructure. tomers his reassurance that check
point, Little Rock’s check-pro- In making its recommendations, service levels will remain high.
cessing function will be shifted the team considered several crite-
to the Memphis Branch and ria, including an office’s:
Fed itorial
The Check Re-engineering Initiative:
It Really Is Business as Usual
By LeGrande Rives, First Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
e have a lot to be proud of in the 2004, Reserve bank check-processing sites will be
W Eighth District. Our check-pro-
cessing sites in Little Rock, Louisville,
reduced from 45 to 32, and check-adjustment sites
will be reduced from 43 to 12.
Closing our District’s Little Rock and Louisville
Memphis and St. Louis are among the check-processing sites will allow our District to save
$4.9 million a year. That’s a number we couldn’t walk
most efficient in the Federal Reserve Sys- away from, but we have not forgotten our mission to
tem. But every prudent business, includ- provide high-quality service.
ing the Federal Reserve, must adapt to Throughout the transition, all Reserve banks will
work to maintain deposit times and availability as close
significant changes in the marketplace. as possible to current service levels, and our new
check-imaging and check-adjustments technology
Nationwide, we know consumers are choosing the will allow us to offer additional services.
efficiency of electronic payments, such as ACH and Likewise, because we care about our affected employ-
debit cards, over checks. One of the Fed’s objectives ees and we want them to remain with us throughout
is to promote an efficient payment system, so we the transition, we’ve offered them generous severance
endorse these trends. and retention benefits. This will ensure that our sites
As consumers adopt electronic payment alterna- continue operating fully and efficiently.
tives, recent definitive research indicates check usage You have my promise that for the next 18 months
is declining, and we must re-engineer our check it really will be business as usual at the St. Louis Fed.
operations. So last fall, the Fed’s Conference of Pres- We have not yet worked through all the details of the re-
idents met to develop a plan for boosting revenues and engineering initiative, but we will communicate any
cutting costs. After much debate, a final decision was changes as soon as we know them. For upcoming
announced in February. Between now and the end of announcements, visit our web site, www.stlouisfed.org.
account balances. • calculate the effect of an antici- If you have any questions about
An additional feature is the Bal- pated as-of adjustment on required these two new services, contact
ance Calculator, which institutions balances. your account executive.
can use to determine the balances Daylight Overdraft Reporting
they should hold each day in order and Pricing System (DORPS)
Upcoming Changes to Regulation W
Simplify Compliance for Bankers
may arise and authorized by Bank Holding Company Act subsection 4 must either pre-
• has no reason to believe that the affiliate would have difficulty sent information to the Federal Reserve Board showing that its card is
www.stlouisfed.org
repaying the credit according to its terms. expected to always comply with the 25 percent test or establish systems
Financial Subsidiaries: Consistent with 23A, the new rule defines a to calculate and validate compliance.
bank’s financial subsidiaries as affiliates; therefore, transactions between a For more information, visit the Board of Governors web site,
bank and its financial subsidiary are subject to 23A and 23B. The rule fur- http://www.federalreserve.gov/regulations/regref.htm#w.
RegionalRoundup
Eighth District Announces • Lunsford W. Bridges, presi- Associates, Inc., Danville, Ky.,
Changes to Boards of Directors dent and CEO of Metropolitan re-appointed to a three-year term
National Bank, Little Rock, re- on the Louisville Board.
The Federal Reserve Bank of elected to a three-year term on • Marjorie Z. Soyugenc,
St. Louis has announced the fol- the St. Louis Board. executive director and CEO of
lowing changes to its boards of • Rogers Yarnell II, president Welborn Foundation, Evansville,
directors: of Yarnell Ice Cream Co. Inc., Ind., re-appointed to a three-year
• Charles W. Mueller, chair- Searcy, Ark., re-appointed to term on the Louisville Board.
man and CEO of Ameren Corp., three-year term on the Little • (Mr.) Meredith Baird Allen,
St. Louis, re-appointed as chair- Rock Board. vice president of Staple Cotton
man of the St. Louis Board. • David R. Estes, president and Cooperative Association, Green-
• Walter L. Metcalfe Jr., CEO of First State Bank, Lonoke, wood, Miss., appointed to a three-
chairman of Bryan Cave LLP, Ark., re-appointed to a three-year year term on the Memphis Board.
St. Louis, re-appointed as deputy term on the Little Rock Board. • James A. England, chairman,
chairman of the St. Louis Board. • Everett Tucker III, chairman president & CEO of Decatur
• Gayle P.W. Jackson, manag- of Moses Tucker Real Estate County Bank, Decaturville, Tenn.,
ing director of FondElec Clean Inc., Little Rock, re-appointed re-appointed to a three-year term
Energy Group Inc., St. Louis, re- to a three-year term on the Little on the Memphis Board.
appointed to a three-year term on Rock Board. • Tom A. Wright, Chairman,
the St. Louis Board. • Scott T. Ford, president and President & CEO of Enterprise
• J. Stephen Barger, executive CEO of ALLTEL Corp., Little National Bank, Memphis, Tenn.,
secretary-treasurer of the Ken- Rock, appointed to fill the unex- re-appointed to a three-year term
tucky State District Council of pired portion of a three-year term on the Memphis Board.
Carpenters, Frankfort, Ky, elected on the Little Rock Board.
to a three-year term on the • Thomas W. Smith, presi-
St. Louis Board. dent of Thomas W. Smith &
Primary credit will be available to financial please see the Credit office’s web site,
www.stlouisfed.org
Large Banks
assigned to individual banks are confi- 30
dential, a comparison of CAMELS
20
ratings across all banks over time may Small Banks
provide useful information about the 10
condition of U.S. banks as a whole. 0
Figure 1 illustrates one method of Dec. 1990 Dec. 1992 Dec. 1994 Dec. 1996 Dec. 1998 Dec. 2000
measuring banking industry condi- Quarterly data Dec. 31, 1990, through Sept. 30, 2002
tion: the percentage of banks rated Note: Small banks are banks with less than $1 billion in total assets, and large banks are banks with assets greater
as being in unsatisfactory condition. than or equal to $1 billion.
According to this measure, banking
industry condition has worsened
slightly since the mid-1990s for FIGURE 2: CAMELS Downgrade from 1 or 2 to 3, 4 or 5
both large and small banks. This
Percentage of Exams Resulting in a Downgrade
35
measure, however, remains much 30
stronger in recent quarters than dur- 25
ing the recession period of 1990-91. Large Banks
20
Figure 1 has limitations as a method 15
for measuring current condition. 10
Given the timing of examinations, Small Banks
5
5
the percentages reflect the results of 0
www.stlouisfed.org
examinations conducted at various 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
points in time during the prior 18 Quarterly data ending in September of each year
months. Additionally, the percent- Note: Small banks are banks with less than $1 billion in total assets, and large banks are banks with assets greater
age of banks rated as being in unsat- than or equal to $1 billion.
CalendarEvents
UPCOMING FED-SPONSORED EVENTS FOR EIGHTH DISTRICT DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS
2003 Evansville Small Business Meeting ference, “Sustainable Community FOURTH DISTRICT:
MARCH 20—EVANSVILLE, IND. Development: What Works, What
Doesn’t and Why.” This conference APRIL 8, 2003
What can urban areas do with vacant, will bring together a diverse audience PITTSBURGH, OHIO
deteriorating buildings in their down- from academia, financial institutions, MAY 8, 2003
town areas, and how can they entice res- community organizations, foundations COLUMBUS, OHIO
idents to move there? This will be the and government to learn about
topic of a quarterly meeting sponsored MAY 13, 2003
research being done in the community
by the St. Louis Fed. Developers and CLEVELAND, OHIO
development arena.
interested parties from both the public MAY 22, 2003
Information is available at www.federalre-
and private sectors are invited to attend. LEXINGTON, KY.
serve.gov/communityaffairs/national.
For information, call Faith Weekly
at (502) 568-9216. EIGHTH DISTRICT:
There’s a Lot to Learn about Money
APRIL 1—COLLINSVILLE, ILL. APRIL 8, 2003
Economic Development in the ST. LOUIS, MO.
Minority Community The Community Affairs office of the
St. Louis Fed is sponsoring this financial MAY 6, 2003
MARCH 25—LOUISVILLE MEMPHIS, TENN.
education program. Its purpose is to
This community affairs forum is make bankers, community organizations MAY 15, 2003
co-sponsored by the St. Louis Fed and other interested parties aware of the LITTLE ROCK, ARK.
and the University of Louisville’s financial education programs that are
School of Urban and Public Affairs. MAY 21, 2003
offered in Illinois.
LOUISVILLE, KY.
For information, call Faith Weekly
at (502) 568-9216. How to Work with the Latino Community Fed Exchange is a new edu-
MAY 14—ST. LOUIS cational forum for financial
2003 Community Affairs This Community Affairs program is for institutions and is co-spon-
Research Conference: Sustainable bankers, government agencies and com- sored by the St. Louis and
Community Development munity organizations that serve Latino Cleveland Feds.
MARCH 27-28—WASHINGTON, DC immigrants, and is sponsored by the For information, call Debbie
The Community Affairs officers of St. Louis Fed and the FDIC. Boren at (314) 444-8946,
the Federal Reserve System are spon- For information on the above programs, or 1-800-333-0810,
soring their third biennial research con- contact Diana Zahner at (314) 444-8761. ext. 44-8946.