[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