TESTIMONY OF
RICKI HELFER
CHAIRMAN
FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION
ON
DAIWA BANK AND
THE SUPERVISION OF FOREIGN BANKS
OPERATING IN THE
UNITED STATES
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND CONSUMER CREDIT
COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
10:00 A.M.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1995
2128 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
Madam Chairwoman and members of the Subcommittee, I
appreciate the opportunity to testify on the role of the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the "FDIC") in
supervising a segment of foreign bank operations in the
United States, and, in particular, the Daiwa Bank Trust
Company ("Daiwa Trust"), the only insured U.S. subsidiary of
The Daiwa Bank, Limited ("Daiwa"). The FDIC has evaluated
the problems and trading losses of Daiwa Trust in close
cooperation with the New York State Banking Department
("NYSBD"), the state chartering authority. In evaluating
the implications of a broader range of problems stemming
from the larger trading losses first reported at the New
York branch of Daiwa, the FDIC has also worked closely with
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("Federal Reserve"),
which has primary supervisory authority, along with the
NYSBD, over that branch. The Federal Reserve has umbrella
supervisory authority over foreign banking organizations in
the United States. Acting together, the Federal Reserve,
the NYSBD, and the FDIC concluded that the conduct of Daiwa
and Daiwa Trust with respect to the separate losses in each
institution stemming from unauthorized bond trading
activities and the response, given the continuing safety and
soundness concerns, of Daiwa and Daiwa Trust officials to
those losses and to internal control deficiencies identified
at Daiwa, was highly inappropriate and that the only
suitable response to that misconduct was to terminate
Daiwa's privilege to conduct banking business in the United
States.
The problems at Daiwa's New York branch and Daiwa Trust
were of three types: 1) the unauthorized activities of
traders, 2) the significant deficiencies in internal
controls for monitoring compliance with laws and regulations
and risks, and 3) the long-term, conscious effort by senior
managers to deceive regulators concerning losses stemming
from trading activities. Simple fraud was therefore
compounded by collusion, which made the detection of various
fraudulent acts more difficult to discover.
On September 18, 1995, Daiwa reported, to the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, a loss exceeding $1 billion as a
result of trading activities conducted at its New York
branch from 1983 to September 1995. The FDIC was informed
of this information by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
on September 22, 1995. These losses were not reflected in
the books and records of Daiwa or in its financial
statements, and their existence was concealed through
liquidations of securities held in Daiwa's custody accounts
and falsification of its custody records.
Daiwa has indicated that, while its senior management
learned about the trading losses at the New York branch on
July 24, 1995, the senior management of Daiwa and its New
York branch directed that those losses be concealed from
U.S. bank regulatory and law enforcement authorities as well
as the public for almost two months and also directed the
continuation of transactions designed to avoid the
disclosure of Daiwa's losses. The Banking Bureau of the
Japanese Ministry of Finance was informed of the losses on
August 8, 1995, but unfortunately did not share that
information with U.S. regulatory authorities.
In addition, the senior management of the New York
branch of Daiwa undertook a series of actions in 1992 and
1993 designed to deceive bank examiners regarding Daiwa's
trading activities, including providing written notice to
the Federal Reserve that actions had been taken to separate
the custody and trading functions at the branch, while
continuing to operate without such controls in place.
On October 5, 1995, following the issuance of joint
cease and desist orders relative to trading losses incurred
by the Daiwa branch in New York and the commencement of
governmental investigations, Daiwa disclosed to the
regulators that, wholly apart from more than $1 billion in
trading losses of Daiwa's New York branch, Daiwa Trust
incurred net losses of approximately $97 million as a result
of trading activities, at least some of them unauthorized,
during the approximate period of 1984 through 1987. These
trading losses: (1) were not reported on the books and
records of Daiwa Trust; (2) were not reported on its
financial statements; and (3) were concealed from federal
and state examiners and regulatory authorities through a
series of transactions with off-shore entities. In
addition, the senior management of Daiwa and Daiwa Trust
participated in the falsification of records and concealment
of those trading losses.
The FDIC's deposit insurance funds will not suffer any
loss from the problems at Daiwa Trust. As of September 30,
1995, Daiwa Trust had total assets of $1.1 billion and held
approximately $134 million in insured deposits -- only 18.3
percent of its total deposits. Daiwa Trust's $97 million in
trading losses, at least some of which were the result of
unauthorized trading by Daiwa Trust employees, were absorbed
by Daiwa in connection with its transactions to conceal the
losses. Daiwa Trust is presently well capitalized, and all
present indications are that the value of its assets are
more than sufficient to satisfy all its liabilities,
including its liabilities to depositors.
In response to the invitation from the Subcommittee,
this testimony describes foreign bank organizations that
operate in our country and the FDIC's role in supervising
them. It discusses the FDIC's recent actions against Daiwa
Trust, in cooperation with other bank regulators. It
presents a range of supervisory issues raised by the
experience with Daiwa and Daiwa Trust. Finally, it
discusses the FDIC's continuing response to those issues.
U.S.- BASED FOREIGN BANK OPERATIONS
SUPERVISED BY THE FDIC
The Federal Reserve, the Comptroller of the Currency
(OCC), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), the FDIC, and
state bank supervisory authorities have varying degrees of
supervisory authority for the United States operations of
foreign banking organizations. As Chart 1 and Table 1
summarize, there were 845 separately licensed foreign
banking organizations, owned by foreign parent banks,
operating in the United States as of June 30, 1995. As of
that date, these foreign banking organizations had total
assets of about $1.1 trillion, of which 72.0 percent were in
689 uninsured foreign banking organizations supervised by
the Federal Reserve, the applicable state licensing
authorities, and, to a lesser extent, the OCC and the OTS.
Of the 845 total foreign banking organizations in the
United States, 18 percent are insured. The FDIC has primary
federal supervisory responsibility over 12 percent of
foreign banking organizations in the United States, which
include 68 foreign bank subsidiaries and 35 state-licensed
branches. As Chart 2 illustrates, the 103 foreign bank
organizations, which the FDIC supervises, had total assets
of $109.6 billion as of June 30, 1995, or 10.1 percent of
the total foreign banking assets in the United States. The
FDIC shares supervisory responsibility for these
organizations with the applicable state authorities. In
addition, the FDIC has a role in insuring the deposits of
the remaining 53 insured foreign banking organizations
operating in the United States, 45 banks and thrifts and
eight branches, which had total assets of $194.7 billion, or
18 percent of total foreign banking assets. Of these 53
organizations, the OCC primarily supervises 34, with total
assets of $130.2 billion; the Federal Reserve primarily
supervises eight, with total assets of $42.1 billion; and
the OTS primarily supervises two subsidiaries of bank
holding companies with total assets of $10.4 billion and
nine subsidiaries of thrift holding companies with total
assets of $12 billion.
As Chart 3 reflects, all FDIC-insured financial
institutions in the United States have estimated total
insured deposits of $2.6 trillion as of June 30, 1995. Of
this amount, an estimated $125 billion, or 4.8% of total
insured deposits, are held by insured foreign banking
organizations.
In addition to supervision by U.S. bank supervisors,
foreign banks operating in the United States are supervised
by their home country bank regulatory authorities. In a
number of countries that supervision is conducted in
accordance with principles developed by the Basle Committee
on Banking Supervision. The Basle Committee has established
guidelines covering the responsibilities of home and host
country supervisory authorities for the supervision of banks
that operate in more than one national jurisdiction. These
guidelines, known as the Basle Concordat (adopted in 1975,
revised in 1983 and further supplemented in 1990 and 1992)
incorporate the principle of consolidated supervision. That
principle includes the requirement that home country
regulators receive consolidated financial information on a
home country banking organization's global operations as
well as the requirement that the home country regulator
confirm the reliability of the information through
consolidated supervision.
The Basle Committee guidelines have been embraced by
bank supervisory authorities of almost 100 countries,
including the United States and Japan, which are members of
the Basle Committee. While the Basle Concordat is not a
binding legal agreement, Basle Committee members and many
other countries have endorsed and adhere to the guidelines.
The Ministry of Finance of Japan has conceded that the
spirit of the Basle Concordat was broken when it failed to
share significant supervisory information on the trading
losses of one of Daiwa's New York branches with U.S.
authorities in a timely basis and has committed to put in
place procedures to assure that such lapses do not recur.
Adherence to the standards of the Basle Concordat is
critical to effective international supervision of
multinational banking organizations.
U.S. OPERATIONS OF DAIWA
Daiwa operates two branches in New York City, which are
licensed to conduct business under New York state law.
These branches do not have federal deposit insurance, and
are subject to supervision by the New York State Banking
Department under state law and the Federal Reserve under the
International Banking Act of 1978, as amended by the Foreign
Bank Supervision Enhancement Act of 1991.
Daiwa also operates five other branches, seven agency
offices, and 14 representative offices, none of which have
federal deposit insurance. Each of these branches,
agencies, and offices are licensed to conduct business by
the 11 states in which they are located and are supervised
by the individual states respectively and the Federal
Reserve.
In addition, Daiwa owns a U.S. domiciled state-chartered
non-member bank, Daiwa Trust, which has deposits
insured by the FDIC. The FDIC shares supervisory
responsibility for Daiwa Trust with the state chartering
authority, the NYSBD. Because of Daiwa Trust's foreign
ownership, the Federal Reserve also has examination
authority over the bank.
As a result of separate but similar violations that
took place in one of Daiwa's New York branches and in Daiwa
Trust, the state and federal banking agencies issued various
orders on November 1, 1995, terminating all operations of
Daiwa and Daiwa Trust in the United States. Daiwa and Daiwa
Trust have consented to these orders. First, the Federal
Reserve, joined by the New York State Banking Department,
the California State Banking Department, the Illinois
Commissioner of Banks and Trust Companies, the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts Division of Banks, the Florida State
Controller, and the Georgia Department of Banking and
Finance, issued a consent order terminating Daiwa's
uninsured branches, agencies, and representative offices
nationwide. Second, the New York State Banking Department
entered a consent order terminating the operations of Daiwa
Trust. The FDIC has joined in this supervisory action by
issuing a consent order terminating Daiwa Trust's federal
deposit insurance.
The FDIC's decision to terminate Daiwa Trust's
insurance was based upon recently revealed information that
Daiwa Trust, with the assistance of Daiwa, concealed a
pattern of unsafe and unsound banking practices and
violations of law over an extended period of time dating
back to 1983. Daiwa Trust was legally obligated to report
losses from trading activities as well as any unauthorized
trading to the New York State Banking Department and the
FDIC. Instead, with the participation and planning of
senior management in both Daiwa Trust and Daiwa, these
losses were concealed and shifted to off-shore entities in
the Cayman Islands.
The pattern of conduct evidenced by this concealment,
coupled with the fact that Daiwa Trust's parent, Daiwa,
again engaged in concealment of significant trading losses
of $1.1 billion from unauthorized trading activities in its
New York branch beginning in 1983, gave the FDIC strong
reason to believe that unsafe and unsound conditions would
continue. In view of the continuing pattern of
misrepresentation to bank regulatory authorities, the
failure to comply with applicable regulatory reporting
requirements, the severe credibility problems of Daiwa
management, and the inability to rely on any assurances from
Daiwa Trust that the unsafe and unsound banking practices
would be corrected, the FDIC was left with no other course
but to terminate Daiwa Trust's deposit insurance.
Under the terms of the New York State Banking
Department and FDIC orders, Daiwa Trust has agreed to
terminate its operations by February 2, 1996, subject to
extension by the regulators to permit an orderly termination
of its banking business. Daiwa Trust may terminate its
operations by selling its business, including deposits, to
another banking institution, or by liquidating itself and
arranging to pay off its liabilities directly. The
termination process for Daiwa Trust is being carried out
under the supervision of the New York State Banking
Department and the FDIC.
ISSUES RAISED BY THE DAIWA EXPERIENCE
From October 1984 to January of 1994, Daiwa Trust was
examined ten times; four times independently by the FDIC,
five times independently by the New York State Banking
Department, and once concurrently by both agencies.
Criticisms related to inadequate policies and controls were
made at each of these examinations. These included
criticisms at several examinations of management's failure
to adhere to an adequate vacation policy, which provides
that bank officers and employees be absent from their duties
for an uninterrupted two-week period. Such a policy has
historically been strongly encouraged, as a primary internal
control mechanism to prevent improper activities. Improper
activities usually require the constant presence of the
perpetrator in order to manipulate records and otherwise
prevent detection. The failure to adhere to a consistent
and adequate vacation policy could have led to an initial
break-down in checks and balances within Daiwa Trust,
thereby facilitating the origination and concealment of the
improprieties. Although the FDIC has no supervisory
authority over Daiwa's New York branch, it appears that the
same kinds of internal control deficiencies are relevant to
its significant problems.
Further, Daiwa Trust also had annual external audits
performed by independent public accountants, including the
period from 1983 to 1987, when the trading losses occurred.
During the same period, Daiwa Trust maintained an Examining
Committee, which was responsible for the review of
internal/external audit reports. There is no indication at
this time that the improprieties at Daiwa Trust surfaced in
those audits.
The FDIC has instituted a comprehensive analysis of all
of the facts related to Daiwa Trust's losses between 1983
and 1987 and the responses of Daiwa and Daiwa Trust, as well
as of the FDIC's supervision of Daiwa Trust. In addition to
analyzing the supervisory records of the FDIC and the NYSBD,
interviewing the examiners, and reviewing all other relevant
materials, the FDIC and New York State Banking Department
currently are conducting examinations of Daiwa Trust. Also,
at the direction of the Federal Reserve, the New York State
Banking Department, and the FDIC, an outside accounting firm
has been retained to perform a
comprehensive review of Daiwa's improper activities,
including the $1.1 billion in trading losses at Daiwa's New
York branch and the $97 million net trading loss at Daiwa
Trust as well as managements' responses to both.
The three bank regulatory agencies have committed to
the U.S. Attorney's office that we will conduct our
comprehensive examinations pursuant to written protocols in
a manner that will not impede its ongoing criminal
investigations and prosecutions. We have sought to
cooperate fully with the criminal investigations, and as a
result, our examinations have been slowed somewhat. These
examinations will determine the specific facts surrounding
the improprieties, including the action that management took
to hide them.
As the FDIC conducts its examination, the key issues
are the extent to which Daiwa Trust's problems are the
result of: (1) a breakdown in internal controls, (2)
fraudulent conduct designed to defeat those controls or (3)
both.
Every bank in the United States, whether foreign or
domestic, is required to maintain a system of internal
controls adequate to the level of risk raised by the
institution's activities. A sound system of internal
controls includes an organization plan that segregates
functional responsibilities appropriately. This separation
includes such fundamental controls as limitations regarding
levels of authority for making and approving lending,
investment, and trading activities; segregation of duties;
rotation of personnel; effective policies on hiring and
training personnel; vacation policies; and provisions for
the protection of physical assets. It also includes a
system of authorizations and recording procedures that
assures reasonable control of assets, liabilities, income
and expenses -- in other words, an effective recordkeeping
system capable of generating a wide variety of internal
management reports. Finally, the system must include an
effective audit program.
Internal controls aimed specifically at, among other
things, protecting institutions from unauthorized trading by
their employees would include such things as segregation of
duties between traders and personnel performing trade-related
accounting and disbursement functions; procedures
under which trade confirmations are sent and recorded
independently of the trading operation; information on
charges and authorizations; and procedures for revaluing
trading positions. Internal controls should also include
documentation of review and approval of all trading limits,
procedures to ensure prompt identification and reporting of
trading limit violations, and daily reconciliation of
individual dealer positions with bank positions.
Internal control systems are reviewed as a part of the
bank examination process. While the examinations of Daiwa
Trust conducted by the FDIC will continue to be evaluated
and any deficiencies in examination procedures will be
corrected, in general, bank examinations are not designed to
identify fraud that is intent on thwarting internal controls
and the examination process. Rather, bank examinations are
designed to evaluate the overall financial condition of the
bank and the adequacy of management. Examinations are
conducted to gauge the safety and soundness of an
institution, to ascertain the risks it poses to the
insurance funds, and to protect depositors. Like a medical
examination, a bank examination is a disciplined look for
discernible warning signs. The examination is based on the
books and records of the bank, statements made to the
examiner by institution officials, and information obtained
from other reliable sources. Where the warning signs are
actively concealed, serious problems are less likely to be
uncovered.
Unless examiners find evidence of specific
deficiencies, the evaluation of internal controls is
conducted as part of an overall evaluation of the bank's
systems. In assessing the adequacy of a system of internal
controls, examiners perform a series of examination
procedures designed to identify control weaknesses. If
deficiencies are identified, more intensive tests are
conducted. Therefore, examiners treat internal controls in
the same way they approach the entire examination process --
the scope of examination activities is expanded in response
to the "red flags" they find. If the management of a bank --
whether foreign or domestic -- is covertly misleading
examiners and the bank's systems are evaluated as adequate,
fraud may remain undetected, at least for a time.
Examinations are sometimes confused with external
audits. External audits are conducted by an independent
public accounting firm retained by an institution to verify
the numbers used in the institution's financial statements
and accounting records. In addition, an audit is designed
to provide a more extensive evaluation of a bank's internal
controls than typically occurs during a regulatory
examination. External audits, for example, may review and
directly confirm transactions to determine whether bank
employees are complying with the institution's system of
internal controls. External audits, therefore, may have a
somewhat greater tendency to detect fraudulent activity. It
is still possible, however, for bank insiders to conceal
deliberately improper transactions. Even a complete and
comprehensive audit may not expose effective deceptive
practices.
Constraints of time and resources do not permit a
complete and comprehensive audit during bank examinations
nor would the benefits derived from such audits warrant the
increased regulatory burden of imposing such comprehensive
reviews on healthy, well-managed institutions.
Nevertheless, when examiners determine there is a need,
because of a warning signal or otherwise, they expand
examinations to include the use of more audit techniques and
procedures.
Further, the FDIC encourages every insured depository
institution to undergo external audits. Since 1993, insured
institutions with total assets of $500 million or more have
been required by regulation to obtain an annual independent
audit, to report annually on management's responsibilities
for preparing financial statements and maintaining an
internal control structure, and to assess and report on the
effectiveness of the institution's internal control
structure. The institution's independent public accountant
is also required to attest to, and to report separately on,
management's statement of responsibilities for preparing the
institution's annual financial statements, for establishing
and maintaining an adequate internal control structure and
procedures for financial reporting, and for complying with
laws and regulations relating to safety and soundness, as
well as management's assessment of the effectiveness of such
internal control structure and compliance with such laws and
regulations. The audit and report are filed with, and
reviewed by, the institution's primary federal regulator,
appropriate state bank supervisors, and the FDIC. These
audit requirements apply to 4 of the 43 insured U.S.
branches of foreign banks, and to 46 of the 113 U.S.
institutions which are subsidiaries of foreign banks. As of
June 30, 1995, these 50 covered institutions had aggregate
total assets of $285.7 billion, and accounted for 93.9% of
the assets of all insured foreign banking organizations in
the United States. These requirements do not apply to the
uninsured offices of foreign banks in the United States.
FDIC RESPONSE TO THE ISSUES
Given the Daiwa experience and other recent well-publicized
trading improprieties, such as Barings, the FDIC
is revisiting its examination methodologies, particularly
with respect to trading activities for both foreign and
domestic institutions over which the FDIC has supervisory
responsibility. Specifically, we are looking into whether
we should develop examination procedures that require
greater use of audit procedures such as obtaining external
confirmations of a sampling of trading transactions during
our examinations of active trading departments. Such
enhancement of examination procedures would require the use
of additional resources, would add to examination time and
would increase the level of regulatory burden on
institutions, so we are weighing this course of action very
carefully.
In any event, we are placing increased emphasis on the
importance of internal controls in our training and guidance
of examiners. The FDIC will expand its review of internal
and external audit workpapers, particularly in regard to
direct confirmations of trading activities. We will tailor
our examinations of controls in a bank's trading department
to take into account any deficiencies we find during these
reviews of audit workpapers. These reviews assist in
examination planning, by potentially streamlining the onsite
examination process, and by emphasizing any areas of
regulatory concern. Examiners have been previously directed
to emphasize the review of auditor work papers for
institutions that have exhibited internal control problems,
significant derivatives activities, or a history of unusual
accounting practices. Going forward, the FDIC will
emphasize that such audit workpaper reviews should also be
conducted with regard to insured institutions having
substantial exposure to higher risk activities, such as
trading activities. Any deficiencies identified during such
reviews, coupled with the adequacy of management's actions
to redress them, will then largely determine the extent of
follow-up audit procedures to be conducted by examiners at
the next examination.
Had present pre-examination planning activities been
in use during the mid-1980s, when Daiwa Trust's losses
occurred, more attention would have been given to the
trading activities of Daiwa Trust during the examination.
In particular, we now review comparative call report
information for significant changes between financial
reporting periods. There were sizeable increases in
holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds between March and June,
1987, in Daiwa Trust when bank management booked the
securities that covered previously unbooked positions.
Current pre-examination planning techniques might have noted
such an increase, triggering expanded attention to the
transactions and their consistency with Daiwa Trust's
investment policies, asset and liability management
policies, and overall business plans.
In particular, we will clarify guidance to our
examiners regarding potential auditing procedures to be
conducted by examiners to review the more risky activities,
such as trading. These will include, but not be limited to,
the tracing of trades from inception through final
processing to determine that appropriate separation of
duties are in place; a review of the audit department's
procedures for confirming all trading instruments held at
other institutions in safekeeping accounts; and ensuring
that all traders are operating within established daily and
intra-day limits.
As part of an on-going effort to improve supervision at
the FDIC, this summer, before learning of Daiwa Trust's
problems, we initiated a project to determine the best
methodologies and infrastructure for the FDIC's supervision
of international banking activities conducted by federally
insured institutions.
This project is focused both on the U.S. operations of
foreign organizations, primarily U.S. subsidiary banks and
insured domestic branches of foreign banks, and the
international operations of U.S. banks. We are evaluating
the comprehensiveness of the FDIC's international
supervisory capabilities, comparing and contrasting these
processes with those in place at the Federal Reserve and the
OCC. The FDIC project team will soon make recommendations
to the Director of the Division of Supervision on whether
and to what extent the FDIC should revise its processes and
infrastructure to supervise more effectively and cohesively
international banking activities at federally insured
institutions.
As part of this effort, we will establish a separate
unit within the FDIC with expertise in international
banking. Such a unit will devote its attention to
international banking matters, and will communicate closely
with similar units of the Federal Reserve, the OCC, and the
state banking departments.
Foreign bank organizations operate in the United States
in various organizational forms, both insured and uninsured,
across multiple regulatory and geographic boundaries. To
enhance and coordinate supervision of foreign banking
organizations, the FDIC is participating in the interagency
Enhanced Framework for Supervising the U.S. Operations of
Foreign Banking Organizations. The federal and state
regulatory authorities formally presented the specifics of
this program to the foreign banking community in late 1994,
and the interagency program is anticipated to be initiated
by early 1996. The program promises to enhance
significantly U.S. supervision of foreign banking
organizations.
Under the program, the FDIC, the OCC, and the relevant
state supervisor for a particular foreign banking
organization will provide the Federal Reserve with proposed
annual examination schedules for integration with those of
the Federal Reserve Banks. Generally, foreign banking
organizations with multiple U.S. operations will have all
the operations examined using the same financial statement
date. After examination plans are developed, exchanged and
coordinated among the examining agencies, the Federal
Reserve will prepare a comprehensive examination plan for
each foreign banking organization. The Federal Reserve will
coordinate the sharing of information relative to
examinations of all foreign banking organizations with
multi-state operations. The Federal Reserve will also
conduct an annual "Summary of Condition" assessment of the
combined U.S. operations of each foreign banking
organization. Such assessment will be furnished to the
chief executive officer at the foreign banking
organization's head office, and the appropriate Federal and
state authorities.
In addition, for each foreign banking organization,
supervisory "strength-of-support assessments" will be
developed annually through a process involving all U.S.
supervisors that have licensing, chartering, or examination
authority over a foreign banking organization's U.S.
operations. These assessments, which will be for internal
agency supervisory purposes, will analyze the ability of the
foreign banking organization to meet its U.S. obligations,
as well as any factors which raise questions about the
ability of the foreign banking organization to maintain
adequate internal controls and compliance procedures at its
offices.
With respect to insured branches of foreign banks that
are under the FDIC's supervision, as part of the Enhanced
Framework we implemented a new interagency rating system in
1994, commonly referred to as ROCA. It focuses on risk
management, operational controls, compliance with applicable
state and federal laws and regulations, and asset quality.
The ROCA rating system provides a framework for assessing
the condition of a branch, both alone and within the context
of the consolidated foreign banking organization, and
pinpoints key areas of concern. For example, under ROCA,
examiners must determine the extent to which risk management
techniques are adequate to control risk exposures that
result from the branch's activities and to ensure adequate
oversight by branch and head office management, thereby
promoting a safe and sound banking environment. The ROCA
system is relatively new, and may require some additional
refinements; nevertheless, over time it appears likely to be
an effective mechanism for enhancing the supervision of the
branch operations of foreign banks in this country.
CONCLUSION
The ability of any bank, including foreign banks, to
operate in the United States is a privilege. This privilege
carries with it certain fundamental requirements: accurate
records and financial reporting on an institution's
operations, activities, and transactions; adequate internal
controls for assessing risks and compliance with laws and
regulations; as well as the utmost credibility in the
institution's management. These requirements were missing
in the case of Daiwa. A failure to comply with reporting
requirements, inadequate internal controls, a continuing
pattern of misrepresentation to regulatory authorities,
deliberate concealment of material events, and the potential
for the continuation of unsafe and unsound practices left
U.S. regulators with no choice but to terminate the
operations of Daiwa Bank in this country. Foreign banks
must meet the same supervisory and regulatory standards
applicable to domestic U.S. banks. The approach we take in
examinations today -- had it been in place in the 1980s --
would have made it more likely that we would have found
problems at Daiwa Trust closer to the time when they
occurred, but fraud is difficult to detect.
Moreover, the FDIC, along with other federal and state
bank supervisory and law enforcement authorities, is
continuing to investigate in detail what went wrong at Daiwa
and why. The FDIC is evaluating whether its examination
procedures applicable to internal and risk controls for
trading activities for foreign and domestic institutions
over which the FDIC has supervisory responsibility should be
enhanced. What we have learned from the Daiwa and Daiwa
Trust experience is already leading to revisions in our
supervisory and examination processes. In addition, even
before Daiwa Trust's problems came to light, the FDIC had
instituted a comprehensive review of its supervisory role
with respect to foreign banks. Moreover, the FDIC will
continue to work on an interagency basis to implement a
comprehensive approach to ensuring effective supervision of
foreign bank operations in the United States. Finally, the
FDIC, as a member of the Basle Committee on Banking
Supervision, will continue to work with the Committee to
ensure greater international cooperation and coordination in
the supervision of multinational banking organizations.