Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Joint Release Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Office of Thrift Supervision

NR 2001-100

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 12, 2001

Regulators Propose Common Form for

Charter and Federal Deposit Insurance Applications

To promote consistency and reduce regulatory burden, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have proposed a uniform charter and federal deposit insurance application form.

The new “Interagency Charter and Federal Deposit Insurance Application” form will be used to apply for a national bank or federal savings association charter and for federal deposit insurance. The proposed form will eliminate duplicative information requests by consolidating into one uniform document the different reporting requirements of the three regulatory agencies.

Today, the agencies submitted the proposed form to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval and published a notice in the Federal Register inviting comment on the new form. The new form is part of an ongoing effort by the regulatory agencies to simplify procedures, eliminate duplicative or outmoded policies and otherwise to reduce reporting burden on financial institutions. In prior years, the agencies have issued four other common forms to promote uniformity: Interagency Notice of Change in Control, Interagency Notice of Change in Director and Senior Executive Officer, Interagency Biographical and Financial Report, and Interagency Bank Merger Act Application.

A copy of the final form is available from any of the agencies or on the Internet at HYPERLINK http://www.occ.treas.gov http://www.occ.treas.gov, at HYPERLINK http://www.fdic.gov http://www.fdic.gov or at http://www.ots.treas.gov. The agencies plan to implement the “Interagency Charter and Federal Deposit Insurance Application” in early 2002 after receiving clearance from the OMB.

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Media Contacts:

OCC: Dean DeBuck (202) 874-4876

FDIC: David Barr (202) 898-6992

OTS: Sam Eskenazi (202) 906-6913