Summary of the Updated Statement of Supervisory Operating Principles

On September 24, 2026, the Federal Reserve Board released its Updated Statement of Supervisory Operating Principles (SSOP). The original SSOP, first published on November 18, 2025, provided an outline of broad changes to the conduct of supervision and established that exam staff should prioritize their attention on a firm’s material financial risks.

The SSOP establishes standards for matters requiring attention (MRAs) or matters requiring immediate attention (MRIAs) based on threats to safety and soundness. Per the SSOP, MRAs or MRIAs should prioritize deficiencies that could have a significant impact on a firm’s financial condition rather than focusing on procedural or documentation shortcomings that do not significantly threaten the firm’s safety and soundness.

As noted in the original SSOP, Board Supervision would refine the SSOP as appropriate. The updated SSOP supersedes the versions that were published on November 18, 2025, and April 21, 2026. The September 2026 updates reflect the key preliminary findings in Starling’s independent review of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure and other feedback received from the public and supervisory staff since the April update.

Primary Objectives of Supervision  

The updated SSOP retains the two primary objectives of supervision that were added in the April 21 update: 

1. identify significant threats to safety and soundness and U.S. financial stability, and violations of law as early as possible, and
2. take decisive and proportionate action as promptly as possible.  

Consistent with the primary objectives of supervision, staff should use their supervisory authority to facilitate the early resolution of troubled insured depository institutions to minimize the long-term cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF). 

Summary of Major Changes

Significant updates in the September 24 version of the SSOP include:  

• adding a section summarizing the preliminary key findings from Starling’s independent review of Silicon Valley Bank's failure;
• announcing new measures to foster a culture of appropriate risk-taking and empowerment to help ensure that all supervisory leadership and staff are taking prompt, decisive, and proportionate action to address deficiencies that threaten the safety and soundness of a banking organization or U.S. financial stability; 
• shifting examiner attention to risks that pose a significant probability of significant harm to the financial condition of the firm, one or more other firms, the DIF, the firm’s resolvability, or U.S. financial stability;   
• adding new guidance on terminating enforcement actions based on substantial compliance; and
• clarifying that at this time, supervisory staff are not required to use any quantitative indicator to decide whether the potential harm from a particular deficiency would be significant.