Federal and state bank supervisors have proposed the first comprehensive revision of the CAMELS rating system in about 30 years, with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) inviting comment on changes designed to focus ratings on material financial risk and improve their transparency.
CAMELS scores each bank on Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity and Sensitivity to market risk. Much of the early debate has centred on the management component and how heavily supervisors should weight it.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, while backing the direction of the proposal, has said it does not go far enough to prevent "double counting", arguing that the management rating too often reflects weaknesses already captured by other components and should stand by itself as a distinct assessment.
The revisions form part of a wider review of bank supervision aimed at reducing compliance burden. The comment period runs until 17 August 2026.
