[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 186 (Tuesday, September 25, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Page 48415]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-20787]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of Economic Analysis


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Department of Commerce.
    Title: Quarterly Survey of Financial Services Transactions between 
U.S. Financial Services Providers and Foreign Persons.
    OMB Control Number: 0608-0065.
    Form Number: BE-185.
    Type of Request: Regular submission.
    Number of Responses: 2,860 annually (715 filed each quarter; 580 
reporting mandatory data, and 135 that would file other responses).
    Average Hours per Response: 10 hours is the average for those 
reporting data and one hour is the average for those filing an 
exemption or providing voluntary responses, but hours may vary 
considerably among respondents because of differences in company size 
and complexity.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 23,740.
    Needs and Uses: The Quarterly Survey of Financial Services 
Transactions between U.S. Financial Services Providers and Foreign 
Persons (BE-185) is one of BEA's primary data sources for its estimates 
of financial services exports and imports. A U.S. financial services 
provider must report if they had sales of covered services to foreign 
persons that exceeded $20 million for the previous fiscal year, or are 
expected to exceed that amount during the current fiscal year, or if it 
had purchases of covered services from foreign persons that exceeded 
$15 million for the previous fiscal year, or are expected to exceed 
that amount during the current fiscal year.
    The data are needed to monitor U.S. trade in financial services, to 
analyze the impact of these cross-border services on the U.S. and 
foreign economies, to compile and improve the U.S. economic accounts, 
to support U.S. commercial policy on trade in services, to conduct 
trade promotion, and to improve the ability of U.S. businesses to 
identify and evaluate market opportunities. The data are used in 
estimating the financial services component of the U.S. international 
transactions accounts (ITAs) and national income and product accounts 
(NIPAs).
    The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is not making any 
modifications to the current BE-185 survey. The effort to keep current 
reporting requirements unchanged is intended to minimize respondent 
burden while considering the needs of data users. Existing language in 
the instructions and definitions will be reviewed and adjusted as 
necessary to clarify survey requirements.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit organizations.
    Frequency: Quarterly.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    OMB Desk Officer: Robert Sivinski, (202) 395-1205.
    This information collection request may be viewed at reginfo.gov 
http://www.reginfo.gov/public/. Follow the instructions to view 
Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected].

Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-20787 Filed 9-24-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-06-P