The Federal Reserve's Board of Governors has extended, by 30 days, the public comment window on its proposal to rewrite the rule governing loans banks make to their own executive officers, directors and large shareholders. Comments that were due October 5 are now due November 4, 2026.
The extension
The notice, published October 7 (91 FR 64121, Docket No. R-1896), extends the comment period on a Regulation O proposal the Board published August 4, 2026, at 91 FR 49526. That proposal had given the public until October 5 to comment. The extension notice gives one reason:
Since the publication of the proposal, commenters have requested that the Board extend the comment period. An extension of the comment period will provide an additional opportunity for interested parties to consider the proposal and prepare comments.
The document does not name which commenters asked, or say how many.
What is being proposed
Regulation O implements two provisions of the Federal Reserve Act — sections 22(g) and 22(h) — that restrict loans a member bank makes to its own "insiders": executive officers, directors, principal shareholders, and companies they control. The proposal says the rules exist to protect banks from self-dealing by insiders. Insider loans already must be on substantially the same terms the bank would offer a person not affiliated with it, and large ones need board approval.
The August 4 proposal would not change that core structure, but it would update numbers and definitions the Board says have gone stale. It would raise several dollar thresholds the Board last revised in 1979, 1983 or 1994, and index them going forward to nominal gross domestic product, measured from the fourth quarter of 1994. The loan size that triggers mandatory board approval would rise from $500,000 to $2 million; a credit-card-debt exemption would rise from $15,000 to $60,000; and an exception for loans to executive officers would rise from $100,000 to $400,000. Separately, the proposal would narrow a "presumption of control" that can pull a company inside Regulation O's limits because a fund complex owning more than 10 percent of the bank's voting shares also owns more than 10 percent of that company and is its largest shareholder. Index funds, the proposal says, are less likely than actively managed funds to try to influence a bank's lending, and such fund complexes are not actively engaged in managing their portfolio companies. The presumption would not apply to a fund complex that holds its investments mainly through funds tracking a third-party index and meets several other tests. The proposal would also write existing statutory requirements and interpretations into the rule's text.
What it does not do
Nothing above is in effect. This is a notice of proposed rulemaking: the Board is asking for comment before deciding whether to adopt, change or drop any of it. Regulation O's current dollar limits and definitions remain the law unless and until the Board finalizes a rule.
How to comment
The extension notice says comments may be submitted by any of the methods the August 4 proposal identifies. Those include the Board's website, federalreserve.gov/apps/proposals, which the proposal marks as its preferred method, and mail or hand delivery to the Secretary of the Board in Washington, D.C. Comments should cite Docket No. R-1896 and RIN 7100-AH27 and are due November 4, 2026. The proposal says comments are published without change and are not edited to remove personal or business information, and that comments should not include anything that would not be appropriate for public disclosure.
Source links
- Loans to Executive Officers, Directors, and Principal Shareholders of Member Banks: Bank Holding Companies — extension of comment period, 91 FR 64121, October 7, 2026
- Loans to Executive Officers, Directors, and Principal Shareholders of Member Banks; Bank Holding Companies — original proposed rule, 91 FR 49526, August 4, 2026