Banking and Finance Law Daily Wrap Up, PRUDENTIAL REGULATION—GAO considers effectiveness of banking agencies’ EGRPRA reviews, (Jul 24, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
By Joe Cox, J.D.
The review focused on action needed to better identify and address unnecessary or unduly burdensome requirements.
In a Report to Congressional Committees, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a new review of banking agency regulations. Pursuant to the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA), the federal banking agencies are required to solicit and review public comments on their regulations to identify and eliminate outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations on insured depository institutions, as appropriate. Those agencies which are involved are the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The report itself admits that outcomes from these reviews are hard to identify and their connection to subsequent regulatory action may be unclear. In part, concerns stem from the fact that the agencies do not have documented procedures for identifying outdated or unnecessary regulations or determining whether issues raised in the reviews warrant action.
New Report Findings. The report ultimately concludes that the goal of eliminating unnecessary regulations can be difficult to identify. Accordingly, the GAO posits that “by developing documented procedures for identifying outdated or unnecessary regulations and determining appropriate actions to address them, the agencies would help ensure that they systematically evaluate issues identified through the review and that the review leads to clear determinations about whether regulatory changes are warranted.”
The reported further noted that the agencies’ review processes are not fully aligned with three significance practices for retrospective review—prioritizing rules for analysis, conducting cost-benefit analysis, and assessing cumulative regulatory burden. While draft documentation from the Fed and FDIC might address those issues, the report notes that the documentation has not yet been fully developed or demonstrated in practice.
Recommendations. The GAO ultimately included six recommendations within the report. Since the recommendations are similar within the agencies, they may be concisely stated as follows:
The Fed Chair, the Chairman of the FDIC, and the Comptroller of the Currency should complete the development and implementation of documented procedures for identifying outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations and taking action to address them during the EGRPRA review.
The Fed Chair, FDIC Chairman, and Comptroller of the Currency should incorporate into the agency’s EGRPRA review, to the extent practicable, (1) a framework for prioritizing rules for retrospective analysis; (2) cost-benefit analysis; and (3) an assessment of cumulative regulatory burden, where feasible.
RegulatoryActivity: FederalReserveSystem PrudentialRegulation OversightInvestigations