While the bank holding companies (BHCs) affected hold only 6 percent of total BHC assets, this change increases the exempt group to roughly 85 percent of all BHCs, thereby providing some burden relief to many smaller companies. These companies will be exempt from consolidated riskbased capital guidelines and will be allowed to file abbreviated semiannual reports in place of consolidated quarterly financial statements.
Under the policy statement, the exemption would not be extended to holding companies with significant nonbank or off-balance-sheet activities or that have material amounts of public debt or equity securities outstanding. Of course, we and the other banking agencies will vigorously enforce prudential capital standards for all deposit-taking institutions, including those owned by the exempt BHCs.