[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 128 (Tuesday, July 3, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31149-31150]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-14305]


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FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM


Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board 
Approval Under Delegated Authority and Submission to OMB

AGENCY: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

SUMMARY: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) 
is adopting a proposal to extend for three years, without revision, 
Recordkeeping and Disclosure Requirements Associated with Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Regulation B (Equal Credit 
Opportunity Act) (FR B; OMB No. 7100-0201).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Federal Reserve Board Clearance 
Officer--Nuha Elmaghrabi--Office of the Chief Data Officer, Board of 
Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC 20551 (202) 
452-3829. Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) users may 
contact (202) 263-4869, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System, Washington, DC 20551.
    OMB Desk Officer--Shagufta Ahmed--Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive 
Office Building, Room 10235, 725 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20503 
or by fax to (202) 395-6974.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 15, 1984, the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) delegated to the Board authority under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (PRA) to approve of and assign OMB control numbers to 
collection of information requests and requirements conducted or 
sponsored by the Board. Board-approved collections of information are 
incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved 
collections of information. Copies of the Paperwork Reduction Act 
Submission, supporting statements and approved collection of 
information instrument(s) are placed into OMB's public docket files. 
The Board 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.
    Final approval under OMB delegated authority of the extension for 
three years, without revision, of the following report:
    Report title: Recordkeeping and Disclosure Requirements Associated 
with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Regulation B (Equal 
Credit Opportunity Act).
    Agency form number: FR B.
    OMB control number: 7100-0201.
    Frequency: Monthly; annually.
    Respondents: State member banks; subsidiaries of state member 
banks; subsidiaries of bank holding companies; U.S. branches and 
agencies of foreign banks (other than federal branches, federal 
agencies, and insured state branches of foreign banks); commercial 
lending companies owned or controlled by foreign banks; and 
organizations operating under section 25 or 25A of the Federal Reserve 
Act (12 U.S.C. 601-604a; 611-631).
    Estimated number of respondents: Notifications, furnishing of 
credit information, record retention (applications, actions, and 
prescreened solicitations), information for monitoring purposes, and 
rules on providing appraisal reports (providing appraisal report), 958 
respondents; Self-testing: Record retention--incentives, 92 
respondents; Self-testing: Record retention--self-correction, 23 
respondents; and Self-testing: Record retention--rules concerning 
requests for information (disclosure for optional self-test), 92 
respondents.
    Estimated average hours per response: Notifications, 6 hours; 
Furnishing of credit information, 2.5 hours; Record retention 
(applications, actions, and prescreened solicitations), 8 hours; 
Information for monitoring purposes, 0.25 hours; Rules on providing 
appraisal reports (providing appraisal report), 3 hours; Self-testing: 
Record retention--incentives, 2 hours; Self-testing: Record retention--
self-correction, 8 hours; and Self-testing: Record retention--rules 
concerning requests for information (disclosure for optional self-
test), 3.5 hours.
    Estimated annual burden hours: Notifications, 68,976 hours; 
Furnishing of credit information, 28,740 hours; Record retention 
(applications, actions, and prescreened solicitations), 7,664 hours; 
Information for monitoring purposes, 2,874 hours; Rules on providing 
appraisal reports (providing appraisal report), 34,488 hours; Self-
testing: Record retention--incentives, 184 hours; Self-testing: Record 
retention--self-correction, 184 hours; and Self-testing: Record 
retention--rules concerning requests for information (disclosure for 
optional self-test), 3,864 hours.
    General description of report: The Equal Credit Opportunity Act 
(ECOA) was enacted in 1974 and is implemented by the CFPB's Regulation 
B for institutions the Board supervises.\1\ The ECOA prohibits 
discrimination in any aspect of a credit transaction because of race, 
color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age (provided 
the applicant has the capacity to contract), or other specified bases 
(receipt of public assistance, or the fact that the applicant has in 
good faith exercised any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act 
(15 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.)). To aid in implementation of this 
prohibition, the statute and regulation subject creditors to various 
mandatory disclosure requirements, notification provisions informing 
applicants of action taken on the credit application, provision of 
appraisal reports in connection with mortgages, credit history 
reporting, monitoring rules, and recordkeeping requirements. These 
requirements are triggered by specific events and disclosures must be 
provided within the time periods established by the statute and 
regulation.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 1691. The CFPB's Regulation B is located at 12 CFR 
part 1002.
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    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The CFPB is authorized to 
issue its Regulation B pursuant to its authority to prescribe 
regulations to carry out the purposes of ECOA (15 U.S.C. 1691b). The 
obligation to comply with the recordkeeping and disclosure

[[Page 31150]]

requirements of CFPB's Regulation B is mandatory. Because the 
recordkeeping and disclosure requirements of the CFPB's Regulation B 
require creditors to retain their own records and to make certain 
disclosures to customers, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) would 
only be implicated if the Board's examiners retained a copy of this 
information as part of an examination of a bank. Records obtained as a 
part of an examination or supervision of a bank are exempt from 
disclosure under FOIA exemption (b)(8), for examination material (5 
U.S.C. 552(b)(8)). In addition, the records may also be exempt under 
FOIA exemption (b)(4) or (b)(6). Records would be exempt under (b)(4) 
if the records contained ``trade secrets and commercial or financial 
information obtained from a person [that is] privileged or 
confidential'' and the disclosure of the information is likely to cause 
substantial harm to the competitive position of the respondents (5 
U.S.C. 552(b)(4)). Records would be exempt under (b)(6) if the records 
contained personal information, the disclosure of which would 
``constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy'' (5 
U.S.C. 552(b)(6)).
    Current actions: On April 13, 2018, the Board published a notice in 
the Federal Register (83 FR 16098) requesting public comment for 60 
days on the extension, without revision, of the FR B. The comment 
period for this notice expired on June 12, 2018. The Board received one 
comment letter that addressed matter outside the scope of this 
proposal.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, June 28, 2018.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2018-14305 Filed 7-2-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210-01-P