66 Fed. Reg. 34,784 (July 2, 2001)

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is publishing this final rule to amend its rules governing investment securities, bank activities and operations, and leasing. The revisions to the investment securities regulations incorporate the authority to underwrite, deal in, and purchase certain municipal bonds that is provided to well capitalized national banks by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). The final rule also makes the following revisions to the bank activities and operations regulations: it establishes the conditions under which a school where a national bank participates in a financial literacy program is not considered a branch under the McFadden Act; it revises the OCC’s regulation governing bank holidays so that the wording of the rule conforms with the statute that authorizes the Comptroller to declare mandatory bank closings; it clarifies the scope of the term ‘‘NSF fees’’ for purposes of 12 U.S.C. 85, the statute that governs the rate of interest that national banks may charge; it simplifies the OCC’s current regulation governing national banks’ non-interest charges and fees; and it provides that State law applies to a national bank operating subsidiary to the same extent as it applies to the parent national bank. Finally, the revisions to the leasing regulations authorize the OCC to vary the percentage limit on the extent to which a national bank may rely on estimated residual value to recover its costs in personal property leasing arrangements. The purpose of these changes is to update and revise the OCC’s regulations to keep pace with developments in the law and in the national banking system.