[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 79 (Tuesday, April 24, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20716-20717]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-10020]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Treasury.

ACTION: Submission for OMB review; comment request.

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SUMMARY: The OCC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork 
and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal 
agencies to take this opportunity to comment on a continuing 
information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995. The OCC is soliciting comments concerning an extension, without 
change, of an information collection titled ``Community Development 
Corporations, Community Development Projects, and Other Public Welfare 
Investments--12 CFR 24.'' The OCC also gives notice that it has sent 
the information collection to OMB for review and approval.

DATES: You should submit your comments to both OCC and the OMB Desk 
Officer by May 24, 2001.

ADDRESSES: You are invited to submit comments to the Office of the 
Comptroller of the Currency, 250 E Street, SW, Public Information Room, 
Mailstop 1-5, Attention: 1557-0194, Washington, DC 20219. In addition, 
you can send comments by facsimile transmission to (202) 874-4448, or 
by electronic mail to [email protected].
    A copy of the comments may also be submitted to the OMB Desk 
Officer, Alexander T. Hunt, Office of Management and Budget, New 
Executive Office Building, Room 3208, Attention: 1557-0194, Washington, 
DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: You may request additional information 
or a copy of the collection and supporting documentation submitted to 
OMB by contacting Jessie Dunaway, OCC Clearance Officer, or Camille 
Dixon, (202) 874-5090, Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division, 
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 250 E Street, SW, 
Washington, DC 20219.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The OCC is proposing to extend OMB approval 
of the following information collection:
    Title: Community Development Corporations, Community Development 
Projects, and Other Public Welfare Investments--12 CFR 24.
    OMB Number: 1557-0194.
    Description: This submission covers an existing regulation and 
involves no change to the regulation or to the information collections 
embodied in the regulation. This regulation implements 12 U.S.C. 24 
(Eleventh) which authorizes national banks to make investments that are 
designed primarily to promote the public welfare, including the welfare 
of low- and moderate-income families and communities (such as through 
the provision of housing, services, or jobs) consistent with safe and 
sound banking practices. The statute requires the OCC to limit a 
national bank's investments in any one project as well as its aggregate 
investments in such projects. This regulation requires national banks 
to make occasional filings to the OCC regarding self certification 
notices, letters from certain banks requesting to self-certify, and 
proposals for investments that require prior OCC approval of public 
welfare investments.
    The OCC is providing national banks with a form by which they make 
these filings and notify the OCC of investments authorized by 12 U.S.C. 
24 (Eleventh). National banks must use this form either to self-certify 
an investment, pursuant to 12 CFR 24.5(a), or to submit a request for 
prior OCC approval of an investment, pursuant to 12 CFR 24.4(a) and 
24.5(b). The OCC's form simplifies the self-certification and prior 
approval processes by outlining the rule's requirements and allowing 
banks to check off most responses. This streamlining of information 
that national banks must submit to the OCC helps to reduce the time and 
burden attendant to the rule's notification and approval processes. The 
OCC intends that this form will encourage banks to increase or enhance 
their investments under part 24.
    A national bank that is not eligible to self-certify investments 
under 12 CFR 24.2(e), but is at least adequately capitalized and has a 
composite rating of at least 3 with improving trends under the Uniform 
Financial Institutions Rating System, may continue to submit a letter 
to the OCC's Community Development Division requesting the authority to 
self-certify investments, pursuant to 12 CFR 24.5(a)(4). The bank may 
also use the OCC's form to request prior OCC approval of its 
investments.
    The information collection requirements in 12 CFR part 24 are 
located as follows:
    Self certification of public welfare investments (12 CFR 24.5(a)): 
To self-certify an investment, an eligible bank shall submit a letter 
of self-certification to the OCC, within 10 days after it makes an 
investment.
    Letters from 3-rated banks requesting to self-certify (12 CFR 
24.5(a)(4)): A national bank that is not an eligible bank but that is 
at least adequately capitalized, and has a composite rating of at least 
3 with improving trends under the Uniform Financial Institutions Rating 
System, may submit an letter to the OCC requesting authority to self-
certify investments.
    Investments requiring prior approval (12 CFR 24.5(b)): If a 
national bank does not meet the requirements for self-certification set 
forth in part 24, the bank must submit a proposal to the OCC requesting 
prior approval for an investment.

[[Page 20717]]

    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 204.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 204.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 408 burden hours.
    The OCC may not conduct or sponsor, and a respondent is not 
required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a 
currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number.

    Dated: April 17, 2001.
Karen Solomon,
Director, Legislative & Regulatory Activities Division.
[FR Doc. 01-10020 Filed 4-23-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-33-P