CCAR Compliance Overview

The Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) is a supervisory program administered by the U.S. Federal Reserve to determine whether major banks are prepared to sustain sufficient capital levels in times of economic crisis or severe financial distress. It considers capital planning and risk management practices, governance structures, risk management processes in particular, and how well data support stress testing and regulatory reporting.

Why it Matters

CCAR promotes the stability of the U.S. financial system. The institutions under this program are expected to conduct thorough capital planning supported by accurate, consistent, and well-governed data. Organizations can risk supervisory findings, remediation actions, restrictions on capital distributions, and reputational damage due to identifying weaknesses.

Core Focus Areas

CCAR addresses governance and internal controls, stress testing methodologies, as well as the integrity of risk and capital data. Companies are required to establish clear data ownership, thorough documentation, and be able to report with high credibility capital and risk reports on time, both at normal conditions and in times of stress.

Next Steps

Organizations in the process of reviewing their CCAR need to focus on reinforcing data governance, enhancing transparency in terms of risk and capital data, and the controls that underlie the testing and reporting around stress over time.