Supervision and Regulation Letters, commonly known as SR Letters, address significant policy and procedural matters related to the Federal Reserve System's supervisory responsibilities. These letters are issued by the Board of Governors' Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation and are a means of disseminating information to banking supervision staff at the Board and the Reserve Banks, as well as to supervised banking organizations.
SR Letters are numbered sequentially by year. For example, the first letter issued in 2005 is numbered SR 05-1.
Provided here in reverse chronological order by year are active SR letters issued since January 1990. Obsolete letters or letters that contain confidential supervisory information are not included.
Attachments to most of the SR letters are included. Hard copies of attachments not provided electronically are available from the Board's Freedom of Information Office.
Letters released prior to November of 2001 were assigned a designation identifying the primary supervisory function addressed in that letter, for example, SR 97-2 (SPE). The designations are explained below.
Letters issued from 1990 through 1994 were classified in one of four functional areas:
- FIS (domestic financial institution supervision),
- IB (international banking supervision),
- SA (specialized banking activities), and
- STR (banking structure and expansion).
In 1995, the functional areas were redefined, as follows:
- APP (Applications)
- ENF (Enforcement)
- GEN (General)
- NIC (National Information Center)
- SPE (Specialized Banking Activities)
- SRV (Surveillance)
- SUP (Financial Institution Supervision)
- TRN (Training)
Letters that concerned only foreign banking activities carried an additional designation, IB (International Banking), for example, SR 97-13 (SUP.IB).
Other Sources of Information on Supervisory Policies and Procedures
Supervision Manuals:
- Bank Holding Company Supervision Manual
- Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual
- Commercial Bank Examination Manual
- Examination Manual for U.S. Branches and Agencies of Foreign Banking Organizations
- FFIEC Information Systems Handbook
- Trading and Capital-Markets Activities Manual
Application Filing Information
Federal Reserve Regulatory Service (FRRS), available through Publications Services