Determining the adequacy of a bank's capital is important, not only to assessthe strength of an individual bank, but also to evaluate the safety and soundnessof the entire banking system. The OCC is also required to analyze capitaladequacy in taking action on various types of applications such as mergers andbranches.

This booklet explains the philosophy and methods of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for supervising community banks. Community banks are generally defined as banks with less than $1 billion in total assets and may include limited-purpose chartered institutions, such as trust banks and community development banks. As banks grow in size and complexity, the supervisory process transitions to that outlined in the "Large Bank Supervision" booklet of the Comptroller's Handbook. The "Community Bank Supervision" booklet serves as the primary guide to the OCC's overall supervision...

The OCC assures that the provision of banking services by national banks is consistent with legal and ethical standards of fairness and corporate citizenship. It performs that obligation by encouraging banks to establish effective compliance management systems and emphasizing that bank management ensure that those systems work. The OCC's approach to promoting compliance and supervising bank compliance management systems in individual banks has two emphases.

Introduction"Commercial loans" is a term commonly used to designate loans not ordinarilymaintained by either the real estate or consumer loan departments. In assetdistribution, commercial or business loans frequently comprise one of the mostimportant assets of a national bank. They may be secured or unsecured and forshort or long-term maturities. Such loans include working capital advances, term business loans, agricultural credits, and loans to individuals for businesspurposes

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, as amended, encourages each insured depository institution covered by the act to help meet the credits need of the communities in which it operates. The CRA requires that each federal financial supervisory agency assess the record of each covered depository institution in helping to meet the credit needs of the entire community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound operations, and take that record into account when deciding whether to approve an application by the institutions for a deposit facility.

The credit card has evolved over the last thirty years into one of the most accepted, convenient, and profitable financial products. It is accepted by millions of consumers and merchants worldwide as a routine means of payment for all varieties of products and services.

This booklet addresses the fundamentals of securities custody and related services, and provides guidance for examining those activities in national banks. One of a series of specialized asset management booklets in the Comptroller's Handbook, the booklet supplements the overall guidance in the "Asset Management Supervision" booklet as well as the "Large Bank Supervision" and "Community Bank Fiduciary Activities" booklets. For additional guidance on general asset management operations and controls, please refer to the Comptroller's Handbook for Asset Management. Please refer to this booklet's...

Section 19 of the Federal Reserve Act gives the Federal Reserve Board authority to impose reserve requirements on deposits of member institutions for monetary policy purposes and to define terms such as deposit, savings deposit, time deposit, nonpersonal time deposit, and transaction account. The Monetary Control Act of 1980 (Title I of Pub. L. 96-221; 94 Stat. 132), which was enacted on March 31, 1980, imposes reserve requirements on depository institutions that maintain transaction accounts or nonpersonal time deposits. Effective November 13, 1980, the Board of Governors of the Federal...