[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 152 (Tuesday, August 8, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 40336-40338]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-18803]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of Economic Analysis

15 CFR Part 801

[Docket No. 950710174-5174-01]
RIN 0691-AA26


International Services Surveys: BE-82 Annual Survey of Financial 
Services Transactions Between U.S. Financial Services Providers and 
Unaffiliated Foreign Persons

AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: This document sets forth proposed rules relating to 
international services surveys to institute a new mandatory survey, the 
BE-82, Annual Survey of Financial Services Transactions Between U.S. 
Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign Persons, to be 
conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of 
Commerce. The survey will update information collected on the 
quinquennial BE-80, Benchmark Survey of Financial Services Transactions 
Between U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign 
Persons, which was first conducted for 1994. Together, the two surveys 
will produce continuous annual time series of data on financial 
services that are out of scope of other international services surveys. 
The information is needed, among other purposes, to support trade 
policy initiatives, including trade negotiations, on financial services 
and to compile the U.S. balance of payments and national income and 
product accounts.
    The survey will be conducted under the International Investment and 
Trade in Services Survey Act and the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness 
Act of 1988.The first survey will cover 1995.

DATES: Comments on these proposed rules will receive consideration if 
submitted in writing on or before September 22, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to the Office of the Chief, 
International Investment Division (BE-50), Bureau of Economic Analysis, 
U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230, or hand delivered to 
Room M-100, 1441 L Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20005. Comments will be 
available for public inspection in Room 7006, 1441 L Street, N.W., 
between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Betty L. Barker, Chief, International Investment Division (BE-50), 
Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, 
DC 20230; phone (202) 606-9805.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: These proposed rules will amend existing 15 
CFR 801.9 to set forth reporting requirements for the BE-82, Annual 
Survey of Financial Services Transactions Between U.S. Financial 
Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign Persons. The survey will be 
conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of 
Commerce, under the International Investment and Trade in Services 
Survey Act (P.L. 94-472, 90 Stat. 2059, 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108, as 
amended) and the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (P.L. 
100-418, 15 U.S.C. 4908). Section 3103(a) of the International 
Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act provides that ``The 
President shall, to the extent he deems necessary and feasible-- . . . 
(1) conduct a regular data collection program to secure current 
information . . . related to international investment and trade in 
services . . .; and (5) publish for the use of the general public and 
United States Government agencies periodic, regular, and comprehensive 
statistical information collected pursuant to this subsection * * *'' 
In Section 3 of Executive Order 11961, as amended by Executive Order 
12518, the President delegated the authority under the Act as concerns 
international trade in services to the Secretary of Commerce, who has 
redelegated it to BEA. The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 
1988 directs that ``The Secretary (of Commerce) shall ensure that * * * 
there is included in the Data Bank information on service sector 
activity that is as complete and timely as information on economic 
activity in the merchandise sector. The Secretary shall undertake a new 
benchmark survey of services transactions, including transactions with 
respect to * * * banking services; (and) brokerage services. * * * The 
Secretary shall (also) provide, not less than once a year, 
comprehensive information on the service sector of the economy.''
    The major purposes of the survey are to provide the information on 
financial services needed in monitoring U.S. services trade, analyzing 
its effects on the U.S. economy, formulating U.S. international trade 
policy, supporting bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, 
compiling the U.S. balance of payments and national income and product 
accounts, developing U.S. international price indexes for services, 
assessing U.S. competitiveness in international trade in services, and 
improving the ability of U.S. businesses to identify and evaluate 
foreign market opportunities.
    As proposed, the BE-82 survey will be conducted in years in which a 
BE-80 benchmark survey, or census, is not conducted; the first BE-80 
survey was for 1994 and the first BE-82 survey would be for 1995. The 
BE-82 survey will update the data provided on the universe of financial 
services transactions between U.S. financial services providers and 
unaffiliated foreign persons derived from the BE-80 survey. It covers 
the same types of financial services that are covered by the BE-80 
survey, but the exemption level below which reporting is not required 
has been raised to $5 million compared with $1 million in the BE-80 
survey. Reporting in the BE-82 is required from U.S. financial services 
providers who have sales to or purchases from unaffiliated foreign 
persons in all covered financial services combined in excess of $5 
million during the reporting year. Those financial services providers 
meeting this criteria must supply data on the amount of their sales or 
purchases of each covered type of service, disaggregated by country. 
U.S. financial services providers that have covered transactions of 
less than $5 million during the reporting year are asked to provide, on 
a voluntary basis, estimates only of their total sales or purchases of 
each type of financial service.

Executive Order 12612

    These proposed rules do not contain policies with Federalism 
implications sufficient to warrant preparation of a Federalism 
assessment under E.O. 12612.

[[Page 40337]]


Executive Order 12866

    These proposed rules have been determined to be not significant for 
purposes of E.O. 12866.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    These proposed rules contain a collection of information 
requirement subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act. A request for 
review of the forms has been submitted to the Office of Management and 
Budget under section 3504(h) of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
    Public reporting burden for this collection of information is 
estimated to vary from 4 to 150 hours, with an overall average burden 
of 7.5 hours. This includes time for reviewing the instructions, 
searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data 
needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. 
Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of 
this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this 
burden, to: Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BE-1), U.S. 
Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230; and to the Office of 
Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503, Attention: Desk Officer 
for the Department of Commerce.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulation, 
Department of Commerce, has certified to the Chief Counsel for 
Advocacy, Small Business Administration, under the provisions of the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 605(b)), that this proposed 
rulemaking, if adopted, will not have a significant economic impact on 
a substantial number of small entities. The exemption level for the 
survey excludes most small businesses from mandatory reporting. 
Reporting is required only if total sales or total purchases 
transactions in financial services with unaffiliated foreign persons by 
U.S. persons who are financial services providers, or by U.S. persons 
whose consolidated enterprise includes a separately organized 
subsidiary or part that is a financial services provider, exceed $5 
million during the year. In addition, international business tends to 
be conducted mainly by the larger companies in a given industry; in the 
financial services industry, this is particularly true, because of the 
high degree of consolidation that has occurred in that industry in the 
United States during the past several years. In any event, small 
businesses tend to have specialized operations and activities, so those 
with reportable transactions will likely not have significant amounts 
of data to report; therefore, the burden on them will be relatively 
small.
List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 801

    Economic statistics, Balance of payments, Foreign trade, Penalties, 
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: July 3, 1995.
J. Steven Landefeld,
Acting Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, BEA proposes to amend 15 
CFR part 801, as follows:

PART 801--[AMENDED]

    1. The authority citation for 15 CFR part 801 is revised to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 15 U.S.C. 4908; 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108; 
E.O. 11961, (3 CFR, 1977 Comp., p. 86 as amended by E.O. 12013, 3 
CFR, 1977 Comp., p. 147, E.O. 12318, 3 CFR, 1981 Comp., p. 173, and 
E.O. 12518, 3 CFR, 1985 Comp., p. 348.

    2. Section 801.9 is amended by adding paragraph (b)(7) to read as 
follows:


Sec. 801.9  Reports required.

* * * * *
    (b) Annual surveys. * * *
    (7) BE-82, Annual Survey of Financial Services Transactions Between 
U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign Persons:

(i) A BE-82, Annual Survey of Financial Services Transactions Between 
U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign Persons, 
will be conducted covering companies' 1995 fiscal year and every year 
thereafter except when a BE-80, Benchmark Survey of Financial Services 
Transactions Between U.S. Financial Service Providers and Unaffiliated 
Foreign Persons, is conducted (see Sec. 801.11). All legal authorities, 
provisions, definitions, and requirements contained in Sec. 801.1 
through Sec. 801.8 are applicable to this survey. Additional rules and 
regulations for the BE-82 survey are given in paragraphs (b) (7)(i) (A) 
through (D) of this section. More detailed instructions are given on 
the report form itself.
    (A) Who must report. (1) Mandatory reporting. Reports are required 
from each U.S. person who is a financial services provider or 
intermediary, or whose consolidated U.S. enterprise includes a 
separately organized subsidiary or part that is a financial services 
provider or intermediary, and who had transactions (either sales or 
purchases) directly with unaffiliated foreign persons in all financial 
services combined in excess of $5,000,000 during its fiscal year 
covered by the survey. The $5,000,000 threshold should be applied to 
financial services transactions with unaffiliated foreign persons by 
all parts of the consolidated U.S. enterprise combined that are 
financial services providers or intermediaries. Because the $5,000,000 
threshold applies separately to sales and purchases, the mandatory 
reporting requirement may apply only to sales, only to purchases, or to 
both sales and purchases.
    (i) The determination of whether a U.S. financial services provider 
or intermediary is subject to this mandatory reporting requirement may 
be judgmental, that is, based on the judgment of knowledgeable persons 
in a company who can identify reportable transactions on a recall 
basis, with a reasonable degree of certainty, without conducting a 
detailed manual records search.
    (ii) Reporters who file pursuant to this mandatory reporting 
requirement must provide data on total sales and/or purchases of each 
of the covered types of financial services transactions and must 
disaggregate the totals by country.
    (2) Voluntary reporting. If, during the fiscal year covered, sales 
or purchases of financial services by a firm that is a financial 
services provider or intermediary, or by a firm's subsidiaries or parts 
combined that are financial services providers or intermediaries, are 
$5,000,000 or less, the U.S. person is requested to provide an estimate 
of the total for each type of service. Provision of this information is 
voluntary. Because the $5,000,000 threshold applies separately to sales 
and purchases, this voluntary reporting option may apply only to sales, 
only to purchases, or to both sales and purchases.
    (B) BE-82 definition of financial services provider. The definition 
of a financial services provider used for this survey is the same as 
that used for the BE-80 benchmark survey, as defined in Sec. 801.11(b).
    (C) Covered types of services. The BE-82 survey covers the same 
types of financial services transactions that are covered by the BE-80 
benchmark survey, as listed in Sec. 801.11(c).
    (D) What to file. (i) The BE-82 survey consists of Forms BE-82(A) 
and BE-82(B). Before completing a Form BE-82(B), a consolidated U.S. 
enterprise (including the top parent and all of its subsidiaries and 
parts combined) must complete Form BE-82(A) to determine its reporting 
status. If the enterprise is 

[[Page 40338]]
subject to the mandatory reporting requirement, or if it is exempt from 
the mandatory reporting requirement but chooses to report data 
voluntarily, either a separate Form BE-82(B) may be filed for each 
separately organized financial services subsidiary or part of the 
consolidated U.S. enterprise, or a single BE-82(B) may be filed, 
representing the sum of covered transactions by all financial services 
subsidiaries or parts of the enterprise combined.
    (ii) Reporters that receive the BE-82 survey from BEA, but that are 
not reporting data in either the mandatory or voluntary section of any 
Form BE-82(B), must return the Exemption Claim, attached to Form BE-
82(A), to BEA.
    (ii) [Reserved].
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 95-18803 Filed 8-7-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-06-M