In a joint release Wednesday, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve [1]), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC [2]), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC [3]) issued final guidance describing supervisory expectations for stress tests.
The tests will be conducted by medium-sized financial companies, "with total consolidated assets between $10 billion and $50 billion," according to the release.
The release comments, "These medium-sized companies are required to conduct annual, company-run stress tests under rules issued by the agencies in October 2012 to implement a provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act."
Companies who meet the asset requirements are required to perform their first stress tests by March 31, 2014.
The release notes that the stress test rules are flexible, and able "to accommodate different risk profiles, sizes, business mixes, market footprints, and complexity for companies in the $10 billion to $50 billion asset range."
"The guidance confirms that companies with assets between $10 billion and $50 billion are not subject to the Federal Reserve's capital plan rule, the Federal Reserve's annual Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, Dodd-Frank Act supervisory stress tests, or related data collections, which apply to bank holding companies with assets of at least $50 billion," the release said.