On December 31, 2012, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) extended until July 1, 2013 the temporary exception from revised lending limits rules implemented under Section 610 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The OCC extended the temporary exception to address concerns that national banks and savings associations to which it applies would not have sufficient time to comply with the rules, which were scheduled to become effective on January 1, 2013.

The interim final rules (see Legal Update, OCC Modifies Bank Lending Limits to Include Derivatives and Securities Financing Transactions) revise the OCC's single-counterparty lending limits regulation (12 CFR Part 32) to incorporate exposure under:

Under the revised rules, lending limits apply to all credit, including counterparty exposure under these types of transactions, extended to a single counterparty. The interim final lending limits rules provide a number of alternative methods for calculating credit exposure arising from these types of transactions. For details, see this helpful Davis Polk memo (note however, that, as discussed in this update, the compliance date has changed).

For more information on state and national bank lending limits, see Practice Notes, US Banking Law: Overview: US Banking Organizations, Their Regulators and Scope of Permissible Activities and Insider Loan Restrictions for Banks: Dodd-Frank Act Changes to Insider Loan Requirements.