Alternatives to the Use of Credit Ratings

Issuing agencies

Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is discontinuing the rulemaking activity, "Alternatives to the Use of Credit Ratings." This rulemaking activity will no longer be reported in the NRC's portion of the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Unified Agenda).

Full Text

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 210 (Monday, November 2, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 210 (Monday, November 2, 2026)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 68893-68894]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-22293]


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Proposed Rules
                                                Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________

This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.

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Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 210 / Monday, November 2, 2026 / 
Proposed Rules

[[Page 68893]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Parts 30, 40, 50, 70, and 72

[NRC-2017-0021]
RIN 3150-AJ92


Alternatives to the Use of Credit Ratings

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Discontinuation of rulemaking activity.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is discontinuing 
the rulemaking activity, ``Alternatives to the Use of Credit Ratings.'' 
This rulemaking activity will no longer be reported in the NRC's 
portion of the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions 
(the Unified Agenda).

DATES: Effective November 2, 2026, the rulemaking activity discussed in 
this document is discontinued.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2017-0021 when contacting the 
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You 
may obtain publicly available information related to this document 
using any of the following methods:
    <bullet> Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and search for Docket ID NRC-2017-0021. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Helen Chang; telephone: 301-415-3228; 
email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#fcb499909992d2bf949d929bbc928e9fd29b938a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="541c3138313a7a173c353a33143a26377a333b22">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>.
    <bullet> NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html">https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html</a>. To begin the search, select ``Begin ADAMS Public Search.'' 
For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room 
(PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by email 
to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#8edecadca0dcebfde1fbfcedebcee0fceda0e9e1f8"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c1918593ef93a4b2aeb4b3a2a481afb3a2efa6aeb7">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>. For the convenience of the reader, the ADAMS 
accession numbers are provided in the ``Availability of Documents'' 
section of this document.
    <bullet> NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies 
of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an 
appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#83d3c7d1add1e6f0ecf6f1e0e6c3edf1e0ade4ecf5"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="ebbbafb9c5b98e98849e99888eab859988c58c849d">[email&#160;protected]</span></a> or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time, Monday through Friday, except Federal 
holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Suchy, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-4130; email: 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e3a782958a87cdb096808b9aa38d9180cd848c95"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="480c293e212c661b3d2b203108263a2b662f273e">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer 
Protection Act of 2010 (the Dodd-Frank Act or the Act) to ``promote the 
financial stability of the United States by improving accountability 
and transparency in the financial system,'' (Pub. L. 111-203). In the 
Act, Congress found that ``ratings on structured financial products 
have proven to be inaccurate'' and that ``[t]his inaccuracy contributed 
significantly to the mismanagement of risks by financial institutions 
and investors, which in turn adversely impacted the health of the 
economy.'' In section 939A of the Act, Congress directed each Federal 
agency to ``review any regulation issued by such agency that requires 
the use of an assessment of the credit-worthiness of a security or 
money market instrument and any references to or requirements in such 
regulations regarding credit ratings.'' Section 939A of the Act further 
directed each such agency to ``modify any such regulations identified 
by the review . . . to remove any reference to or requirement of 
reliance on credit ratings and to substitute in such regulations such 
standard of credit-worthiness as each respective agency shall determine 
as appropriate for such regulations.'' A discussion of the NRC's 
decision to discontinue this rulemaking activity is provided in section 
II of this document.

II. Discussion

    As directed by section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Act, the NRC reviewed 
its regulations for any references for requirements of reliance on 
credit ratings. In accordance with this review, the NRC issued a 
proposed rulemaking and associated guidance for public comment January 
3, 2023 (88 FR 25). The NRC received two public comment submissions on 
the proposed rulemaking; the public comments were considered during the 
final rule revision efforts, but the NRC will not be responding due to 
the discontinuation of the rulemaking.
    As part of the final rule revisions, the NRC reviewed Dodd-Frank 
Act policies and rulemakings published by other Federal agencies to 
examine the manner in which they implemented the removal of references 
to credit ratings when they are used to assess the credit-worthiness of 
the underlying security. In 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange 
Commission issued implementing regulations to ``remove certain existing 
rule exceptions that reference credit ratings for nonconvertible debt 
securities, nonconvertible preferred securities, and asset-backed 
securities and substitute in their place new exceptions that are based 
on alternative standards of creditworthiness,'' (88 FR 39962; June 20, 
2023). The NRC staff also learned from the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) that the NRC was the only non-financial 
regulator that submitted a rulemaking in response to section 939A of 
Dodd Frank for Executive Order 12866, ``Regulatory Planning and 
Review.'' In reviewing regulatory actions of other Federal agencies 
related to Dodd Frank, the NRC determined that it is in the best 
interest of the agency to discontinue this rulemaking as it would 
assess the credit-worthiness of an entity (not a security), whereas it 
is Federal best-practice to utilize the bottom-line credit-worthiness 
determination of the underlying regulation operated on a security or 
money market instrument.

III. Conclusion

    The NRC is no longer pursuing the rulemaking for Alternatives to 
the Use of Credit Ratings. In the next edition of the Unified Agenda, 
the NRC will update the entry for this rulemaking activity and 
reference this document to indicate that the rulemaking activity is no 
longer being pursued. This rulemaking will appear in the completed 
actions section of that edition of the Unified Agenda but will not 
appear in future editions. The NRC

[[Page 68894]]

will inform the public of future associated rulemakings through new 
rulemaking entries in the Unified Agenda.

    Dated: October 29, 2026.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jody Martin,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2026-22293 Filed 10-30-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P


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