September Rule Widens Eligibility for 18-Month Bank Exams
The change raises the asset threshold while retaining management and capitalization criteria.
US federal banking regulators announced an interim final rule on September 10, 2026 expanding eligibility for an 18-month on-site examination cycle instead of a 12-month cycle. The change took effect on September 14, 2026, extending eligibility to institutions with less than $6 billion in assets rather than less than $3 billion. Other conditions, including being well managed and well capitalized, still apply.
Frequency is not the end of oversight
The announcement said off-site monitoring would continue between scheduled examinations. Extending the interval between visits should therefore not be read as ending supervision or exempting a bank from underlying requirements.
The economic idea is to allocate examination resources with reference to institutional size, complexity and risk. But the asset threshold is not the only factor. Two similarly sized banks can have different eligibility because of supervisory ratings or other specified conditions.
Readers should also separate a reduction in administrative burden from changes in deposit protection or a bank’s obligations to customers. This development concerns a particular examination cycle, not every supervisory tool. It does not permit an individual institution to be labeled low risk without examining institution-specific information. Applying the rule requires checking its legal text and effective date, because the announcement date alone does not establish every legal or operational consequence for affected firms.