[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 116 (Tuesday, June 17, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32811-32812]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-15812]


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FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB Under 
Delegated Authority

Background

    Notice is hereby given of the final approval of a proposed 
information collection by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System (Board) under OMB delegated authority, as per 5 CFR 1320.16 (OMB 
Regulations on Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public). The 
Federal Reserve may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not 
required to respond to, an information collection that has been 
extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless 
it displays a currently valid OMB control number.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Chief, Financial Reports Section--Mary M. McLaughlin--Division of 
Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System, Washington, DC 20551 (202-452-3829)
OMB Desk Officer--Alexander T. Hunt--Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive 
Office Building, Room 3208, Washington, DC 20503 (202-395-7860)
    Final approval under OMB delegated authority of the extension for 
three years, with revision, of the following report:
    1. Report title: Report of Repurchase Agreements (RPs) on U.S. 
Government and Federal Agency Securities with Specified Holders
Agency form number: FR 2415
OMB Control number: 7100-0074
Effective Date: reporting week ending June 30, 1997
Frequency: weekly, quarterly, or annually
Reporters: U.S.-chartered commercial banks, U.S. branches and agencies 
of foreign banks, and thrift institutions
Annual reporting hours: 4,037
Estimated average hours per response: 0.5
Number of respondents: 120 weekly, 208 quarterly, and 1,002 annually
Small businesses are not affected.
    General description of report: This information collection is 
voluntary (12 U.S.C. 248(a)(2)) and is given confidential treatment (5 
U.S.C. 552(b)(4)).
    Abstract: Since 1980, the Federal Reserve has collected two reports 
providing detailed data on nonreservable borrowings (primarily federal 
funds and repurchase agreement (RP) transactions) from large commercial 
banks for construction of

[[Page 32812]]

the RP components of the monetary aggregates and for other analytical 
purposes. Over time, three other sample reports have been added to this 
reporting framework to provide RP data from other depository 
institutions for the construction of the monetary aggregates. The 
Federal Reserve is instituting a complete overhaul of this reporting 
framework, resulting in a simplified reporting system and significant 
reductions in item coverage. The revised framework will be implemented 
as of the end of June 1997.
    Under the revised reporting system, the Federal Reserve will 
collect a single report containing a single item: RPs in denominations 
of $100,000 or more, in immediately-available funds, on U.S. government 
and federal agency securities, transacted with specified holders. 
Respondents submit the report weekly, quarterly, or annually based on 
the level of their RP activity as measured by the RP reports themselves 
or from more broadly defined items on quarterly reports of condition 
that are used as indicators of possible RP activity. The Federal 
Reserve estimates that revised reporting system will reduce annual 
respondent burden by 16,890 hours and annual respondent costs by 
approximately $338 thousand.
    On March 25, 1997, the Board granted initial approval to the 
proposed restructuring of the RP reports. Notice of the proposal was 
published in the Federal Register; the comment period expired on May 
30, 1997. The Board received one comment letter, from a large bank 
holding company. The commenter recommended first that the proposed FR 
2415 collect information on RPs of all sizes, not just those of 
$100,000 or more, noting that programming would be required to break 
out large RPs. Second, the commenter recommended that the FR 2415 
collect RPs net of sales of securities under agreements to repurchase, 
as now allowed by GAAP on the quarterly condition report.
    The Board made no changes to the proposed item definition in 
response to the comment letter because such changes would require 
redefining the monetary aggregates. The FR 2415 data are collected for 
the purpose of constructing the RP component of M3. The definition of 
the non-M2 portion of M3 includes RPs issued by depository institutions 
without any netting of RP investments of those institutions, and it 
excludes RPs of less than $100,000 (which are included in the small 
time deposit component of M2). In contrast, the condition reports use 
GAAP reporting treatment because they focus on the balance sheet, 
rather than the monetary aggregates.
    At the same time, the final panel selection criteria differ 
slightly from the original proposal. As a result of further study, the 
Federal Reserve has refined the panel selection criteria with respect 
to cutoffs applied to quarterly condition report data. The Federal 
Reserve will evaluate over the course of the next year the efficacy of 
the panel selection criteria.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, June 11, 1997.
William W. Wiles,
Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 97-15812 Filed 6-16-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210-01-F