[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 88 (Thursday, May 6, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25418-25419]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-10271]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Office of the Secretary


Submission for OMB Review: Comment Request

April 23, 2004.
    The Department of Labor (DOL) has submitted the following public 
information collection requests (ICRs) to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. chapter 35). A copy of 
each ICR, with applicable supporting documentation, may be obtained by 
contacting the Department of Labor (DOL). To obtain documentation, 
contact Darrin King on 202-693-4129 (this is not a toll-free number) or 
e-mail: [email protected].
    Comments should be sent to Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, Attn: OMB Desk Officer for the Employee Benefits Security 
Administration (EBSA), Office of Management and Budget, Room 10235, 
Washington, DC 20503, 202-395-7316 (this is not a toll-free number), 
within 30 days from the date of this publication in the Federal 
Register.
    The OMB is particularly interested in comments which:
     Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
     Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the 
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
     Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     Minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submission of responses.

    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
    Title: Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 92-6: Sale of 
Individual Life Insurance or Annuity Contracts by a Plan.
    OMB Number: 1210-0063.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Type of Response: Third party disclosure.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit; Not-for-profit 
institutions; and Individuals or households.
    Number of Respondents: 8,360.
    Number of Annual Responses: 8,360.
    Estimated Time Per Response: 12 minutes.
    Total Burden Hours: 1,671.
    Total Annualized capital/startup costs: $0.
    Total Annual Costs (operating/maintaining systems or purchasing 
services): $3,093.
    Description: Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 92-6 exempts 
from the prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement 
Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) the sale of individual life insurance or 
annuity contracts by a plan to participants, relatives of participants, 
employers any of whose employees are covered by the plan, other 
employee benefit plans, owner-employees or shareholder-employees. In 
the absence of this exemption, certain aspects of these transactions 
might be prohibited by section 406 of ERISA.
    The disclosure requirements protect plan participants by putting 
them on notice of the plan's intention to sell insurance or annuity 
contracts under which they are insured, and by giving the participants 
the right of first refusal to purchase such contracts.

    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
    Title: Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 91-55: Transactions 
between Individual Retirement Accounts and Authorized Purchases of 
American Eagle Coins.
    OMB Number: 1210-0079.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Type of Response: Recordkeeping and Third party disclosure.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit; Not-for-profit 
institutions; and Individuals or households.
    Number of Respondents: 2.
    Number of Annual Responses: 12,800.
    Estimated Time Per Response: 1 minute for recordkeeping and 16 
minutes to compose and distribute the disclosure document.
    Total Burden Hours: 554.
    Total Annualized capital/startup costs: $0.
    Total Annual Costs (operating/maintaining systems or purchasing 
services): $0.
    Description: Prohibited Transaction Exemption 91-55 permits 
purchases and sales by certain ``individual retirement accounts,'' as 
defined in Internal Revenue Code section 408 (IRAs) of American Eagle 
bullion coins (``Coins'') in principal transactions from or to broker-
dealers in Coins that are ``authorized purchasers'' of Coins in bulk 
quantities from the United States Mint and which are also 
``disqualified persons,'' within the meaning of Code section 
4975(e)(2), with respect to IRAs. The exemption also describes the 
circumstances under which an interest-free extension of credit in 
connection with such sales and purchases is permitted. In the absence 
of an exemption, such purchases and sales and extensions of credit 
would be impermissible under the Employee Retirement Income Security 
Act of 1974 (ERISA).
    The information collection request for this exemption includes 
three requirements. First, certain information related to covered 
transactions in Coins must be disclosed by the authorized purchaser to 
persons who direct the transaction for the IRA. Currently, it is 
standard industry practice that most of this information is provided to 
persons directing investments in an IRA when transactions in Coins 
occur. The exemption also requires that the disqualified person 
maintain for a period of at least six years such records as are 
necessary to allow accredited persons, as defined in the exemption, to 
determine whether the conditions of the transaction have been met. 
Finally, an authorized purchaser must provide a confirmation statement 
with respect to each covered transaction to the person who directs the 
transaction for the IRA.
    The recordkeeping requirement facilitates the Department's ability 
to make findings under section 408 of ERISA and section 4975(c) of the 
Code. The confirmation and disclosure requirements protect a 
participant or beneficiary who invests in IRAs and transacts in Coins 
with authorized purchasers by providing the investor or the person 
directing his or her investments with timely information about the 
market in Coins and about the individual's account in particular.


[[Page 25419]]


    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Extension of currently approved collection.
    Title: Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 85-68 to Permit 
Employee Benefit Plans to Invest in Customer Notes of Employers.
    OMB Number: 1210-0094.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Type of Response: Recordkeeping.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit; Not-for-profit 
institutions; and Individuals or households.
    Number of Respondents: 69.
    Number of Annual Responses: 325.
    Estimated Time Per Response: 1 hour.
    Total Burden Hours: 1.
    Total Annualized capital/startup costs: $0.
    Total Annual Costs (operating/maintaining systems or purchasing 
services): $0.
    Description: Pursuant to section 408 of ERISA, the Department has 
authority to grant an exemption from the prohibitions of sections 406 
and 407(a) if it can determine that the exemption is administratively 
feasible, in the interest of participants and beneficiaries, and 
protective of the rights of participants and beneficiaries of the plan.

Prohibited

    Transaction Class Exemption 85-68 describes the conditions under 
which a plan is permitted to acquire customer notes accepted by an 
employer of employees covered by the plan in the ordinary course of the 
employer's primary business activity. The exemption covers sales as 
well as contributions of customer notes by an employer to its plan. 
Specifically, the exemption requires that the employer provide a 
written guarantee to repurchase a note which becomes more than 60 days 
delinquent, that such notes be secured by a perfected security interest 
in the property financed by the note, and that the collateral be 
insured. This ICR requires that records pertaining to the transaction 
be maintained for a period of six years for the purpose of ensuring 
that the transactions are protective of the rights of participants and 
beneficiaries.
    The Department believes that the applicable financial records would 
normally be maintained for purposes satisfying the requirement of the 
annual financial report (Form 5500) that is approved under OMB control 
number 1210-0110; therefore, only 1 burden hour is requested for this 
OMB control number.

Ira L. Mills,
Departmental Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-10271 Filed 5-5-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-29-P