October 27, 2016
Federal Reserve Board announces annual indexing of reserve requirement exemption amount and of low reserve tranche for 2017
For release at 10:00 a.m. EDT
The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced the annual indexing of two amounts used in determining reserve requirements of depository institutions. These amounts are the reserve requirement exemption amount and the low reserve tranche.
All depository institutions must hold a percentage of certain types of deposits as reserves in the form of vault cash, as a deposit in a Federal Reserve Bank, or as a deposit in a pass-through account at a correspondent institution. Reserve requirements currently are assessed on the depository institution's net transaction accounts (mostly checking accounts). Depository institutions must also regularly submit reports of their deposits and other reservable liabilities.
For net transaction accounts in 2017, the first $15.5 million, up from $15.2 million in 2016, will be exempt from reserve requirements. A 3 percent reserve ratio will be assessed on net transaction accounts over $15.5 million up to and including $115.1 million, up from $110.2 million in 2016. A 10 percent reserve ratio will be assessed on net transaction accounts in excess of $115.1 million.
These annual adjustments, known as the reserve requirement exemption amount adjustment and the low reserve tranche adjustment, are based on growth in total reservable liabilities and net transaction accounts, respectively, at all depository institutions between June 30, 2015 and June 30, 2016.
The new low reserve tranche and reserve requirement exemption amount will apply to the 14-day reserve maintenance period that begins January 19, 2017. For depository institutions that report deposit data weekly, this maintenance period corresponds to the 14-day computation period that begins Tuesday, December 20, 2016. For depository institutions that report deposit data quarterly, this maintenance period corresponds to the seven-day computation period that begins Tuesday, December 20, 2016.
The Board also announced changes in two other amounts, the nonexempt deposit cutoff level and the reduced reporting limit, that are used to determine the frequency with which depository institutions must submit deposit reports. The attached Federal Register notice contains a description of the new boundaries for deposit reporting that will be effective in 2017.
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