Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issues final rule streamlining branch and office filings and expanding expedited approvals

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a final rule amending its Rules and Regulations for insured State nonmember banks to establish domestic branches and to relocate main offices or domestic branches, with corresponding changes for the relocation of insured branches of foreign banks. The changes streamline application content, shorten and broaden expedited processing, and remove public notice steps to increase speed and certainty for branch and main office filings. Under the rule, required filing content is limited to a statement of intent, the exact location, a statement of intent to retain branches in the prior State for interstate relocations, and confirmation that advance written customer notice was provided for relocations. Expedited processing timelines are significantly shortened, including automatic approval of qualifying intrastate branch relocation filings on the third business day rather than the 21st business day, while non-expedited filings remain subject to standard processing. Expedited processing is expanded for intrastate branch and main office relocations for institutions with an FDIC-assigned composite rating of 3 or better under the Uniform Financial Institutions Rating System from their most recent Federal or State examination, regardless of whether other criteria in 12 CFR 303.2(r) are met, and the FDIC removes its discretion to take filings out of expedited processing. The rule also removes filing requirements for de minimis address changes (while requiring customer notification), eliminates newspaper publication requirements in Part 303 Subpart C, extends the expiration period for approved filings from 18 to 24 months, and adopts definitional and terminology updates including a definition of "remote service unit" and "intrastate main office relocation."