On August 15, 2022 the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) approved final account access guidelines (final guidelines) designed to establish a tiered review framework for requests to access Federal Reserve master accounts and payment services (accounts and services). Institutions with federal deposit insurance would be subject to a more streamlined level of review, while institutions that engage in novel activities and for which authorities are still developing appropriate supervisory and regulatory frameworks – such as crypto and digital asset activities – will undergo a more extensive review.

The final guidelines are substantially similar to the proposed guidelines issued by the FRB in May 2021 and supplemented in March 2022 (see Legal Update, FRB Proposes Guidelines for Special Purpose Bank Charters to Access Reserve Bank Services).

According to the FRB, in response to public comments to the FRB's prior proposed guidelines, the tiered review framework has been refined in the final guidelines to provide more comparable treatment between non-federally insured institutions chartered under state and federal law. The FRB notes that the final guidelines are designed to be applied to both new and pending access requests as well as cases where the Reserve Bank determines to reevaluate the risk of existing accounts.

The FRB notes that, in recent years, many fintechs have requested access to accounts – often referred to as "master accounts" – and payment services offered by Reserve Banks.

The FRB notes that an institution has the option to settle its federal reserve financial services transactions in its master account with a Reserve Bank or in the master account of another institution that has agreed to act as its correspondent bank – the final guidelines apply to requests for either arrangement. The final guidelines are intended to be used by Reserve Banks to evaluate those requests with a transparent and consistent set of factors.

The FRB states that while the guidelines are designed primarily for new access requests, Reserve Banks should also apply the guidelines to existing account-and-services relationships when a Reserve Bank becomes aware of a significant change in the risks that the account holder presents due to changes in its principal business activities, condition, or other factors.

The final guidelines are effective upon publication in the Federal Register.