Washington State Department of Financial Institutions

Banks Rulemaking

Rulemaking is the process government agencies must use to create, modify, or repeal rules in the Washington Administrative Code (WAC).

Rules are regulations, standards, or other statements of general applicability adopted by an agency to either:

  1. Implement, interpret, or make specific a law enforced or administered by an agency, or

  2. Prescribe or interpret an agency policy, procedure or practice requirement binding on persons outside the agency.

Rules are valid and binding on the persons they affect, and have the force of law unless amended, revised, or unless a court of competent jurisdiction determines otherwise.

Rulemaking Comments
Comments are welcome during the rulemaking process and may be submitted online. Submit Your Rulemaking Comments

Rulemaking News

Fee Increase Rulemaking

The 2008 Washington State Legislature recently passed EHB 3381 (PDF)*, which was signed by Governor Gregoire. This legislation requires new regulatory responsibilities for the Division of Banks (DOB). The Legislature increased DOB’s revenues for hourly examination fees and asset assessments to help fund its new regulatory responsibilities and support current levels of operations. Further, the Legislature provided DOB with the ability to assess interstate assets of Washington State chartered financial institutions, to offset the loss of interstate bank fees as a result of recent changes in federal law.

While the new law gives the DOB the right to increase fees without stakeholder input or rulemaking, we believe the best course of action is to hold rulemaking to provide industry input into the process.

Documents:

Comments:
To submit your comments regarding rulemaking, please use our rulemaking comments form.

Guidance Rulemaking

The 2008 Washington State Legislature recently passed SHB 2770 (PDF)*. This legislation requests a permanent rule requiring financial institutions (including state-chartered commercial banks, savings banks and savings associations) that act as residential mortgage lenders to adopt subprime lending policies and procedures that incorporate the principles contained in the federal “Interagency Guidance on Nontraditional Mortgage Product Risks” and the federal “Statement on Subprime Mortgage Lending” (“Guidance”).

Documents

Rulemaking Hearing:
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
10:00 am
Seattle Office of Division of Banks
Active Voice Building
Conference Room Suite 1030
2033 6th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121

Comments:
To submit your comments regarding rulemaking, please use our rulemaking comments form.

Rulemaking Steps

Generally, rulemaking takes place in three distinctive steps based on filings required by the Office of the Code Reviser:

  1. CR-101 Pre-proposal Statement of Inquiry. At this stage, proposed text is usually not available. Comment is invited on whether rules in the areas identified in the CR-101 are needed and, if so, the content of those rules.
  2. A CR-102 Rulemaking Proposal is filed if it is decided to proceed. Proposed text is filed with the CR-102 and a comment period and public hearing are scheduled.
  3. After the comment period and public hearing, a CR-103 Rulemaking Order will be filed if it is decided to proceed with the rule. The final text is included with the CR-103. The newly adopted rules are generally effective 31 days after filing with the Code Reviser.

Once a rule has been adopted, it becomes a part of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC).

* This document is a PDF file, and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. If you don't already have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you may download it for free from Adobe.

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