[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 5, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1732-1734]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-00996]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM


Proposed Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment 
Request

AGENCY: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

ACTION: Notice, request for comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) 
invites comment on a proposal to extend for three years, with revision, 
the Suspicious Activity Report (FR 2230; OMB No. 7100-0212).

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before April 8, 2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by FR 2230, by any of 
the following methods:
     Agency website: http://www.federalreserve.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments at https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/foia/proposedregs.aspx.
     Email: [email protected]. Include OMB 
number in the subject line of the message.
     FAX: (202) 452-3819 or (202) 452-3102.
     Mail: Ann E. Misback, Secretary, Board of Governors of the 
Federal Reserve System, 20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, 
Washington, DC 20551.
    All public comments are available from the Board's website at 
https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/foia/proposedregs.aspx as 
submitted, unless modified for technical reasons or to remove sensitive 
personally identifiable information at the commenter's request. Public 
comments may also be viewed electronically or in paper form in Room 
3515, 1801 K Street NW (between 18th and 19th Streets NW), Washington, 
DC 20006, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. For security 
reasons, the

[[Page 1733]]

Board requires that visitors make an appointment to inspect comments. 
You may do so by calling (202) 452-3684. Upon arrival, visitors will be 
required to present valid government-issued photo identification and to 
submit to security screening in order to inspect and photocopy 
comments.
    Additionally, commenters may send a copy of their comments to the 
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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A copy of the PRA OMB submission, 
including the proposed reporting form and instructions, supporting 
statement, and other documentation will be placed into OMB's public 
docket files, if approved. These documents will also be made available 
on the Board's public website at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/reportforms/review.aspx or may be requested from the agency clearance 
officer, whose name appears below.
    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.

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 and assign OMB control numbers to 
collection of information requests and requirements conducted or 
sponsored by the Board. In exercising this delegated authority, the 
Board is directed to take every reasonable step to solicit comment. In 
determining whether to approve a collection of information, the Board 
will consider all comments received from the public and other agencies.

Request for Comment on Information Collection Proposal

    The Board invites public comment on the following information 
collection, which is being reviewed under authority delegated by the 
OMB under the PRA. Comments are invited on the following:
    a. Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the Board's functions; including whether the 
information has practical utility;
    b. The accuracy of the Board's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed information collection, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    c. Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected;
    d. Ways to minimize the burden of information collection on 
respondents, including through the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology; and
    e. Estimates of capital or startup costs and costs of operation, 
maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information.
    At the end of the comment period, the comments and recommendations 
received will be analyzed to determine the extent to which the Board 
should modify the proposal.

Proposal To Approve Under OMB Delegated Authority the Extension for 
Three Years, With Revision, of the Following Report

    Report title: Suspicious Activity Report.
    Agency form number: FR 2230.
    OMB control number: 7100-0212.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Respondents: State member banks, bank holding companies and their 
nonbank subsidiaries, Edge and agreement corporations, the nonbank 
subsidiaries of foreign banks supervised by the Board, and certain U.S. 
branches, agencies, and representative offices of such foreign banks.
    Estimated number of respondents: 6,698.
    Estimated average hours per response: 1.5.
    Estimated annual burden hours: 439,520.
    General description of report: Since 1996, the federal banking 
agencies \1\ and the Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes 
Enforcement Network (FinCEN) have required certain types of financial 
institutions to report known or suspected violations of law and 
suspicious transactions. To fulfill these requirements, supervised 
banking organizations file Bank Secrecy Act--Suspicious Activity 
Reports (BSA-SARs).\2\ Law enforcement agencies use the information 
submitted in the reports to initiate investigations and the Board uses 
the information in the examination and oversight of supervised 
institutions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ These agencies include the Board, the Office of the 
Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance 
Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration.
    \2\ In 1996, the Board together with the other federal banking 
agencies issued nearly identical regulations to implement the SAR 
process for banking organizations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Board's suspicious activity reporting rules apply to state 
member banks, bank holding companies and their nonbank subsidiaries, 
Edge and agreement corporations, the nonbank subsidiaries of foreign 
banks supervised by the Board, and certain U.S. branches, agencies, and 
representative offices of such foreign banks.\3\ The Board is only 
responsible for the paperwork burden imposed on these institutions. 
Other federal banking agencies account for the paperwork burden for the 
institutions they supervise.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ See 12 CFR 208.62 (state member banks); 12 CFR 211.5(k) 
(Edge and agreement corporations); 12 CFR 211.24(f) (a branch, 
agency, or representative office of a foreign bank operating in the 
United States, except for a federal branch or a federal agency or a 
state branch that is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance 
Corporation (FDIC)); 12 CFR 225.4(f) (bank holding companies, 
nonbank subsidiaries of a bank holding company, foreign banks 
subject to the Bank Holding Company Act, and nonbank subsidiaries of 
such a foreign bank). The Board's suspicious activity reporting 
rules do not apply to a branch or agency of a foreign bank operating 
in the United States if it is a federal branch or a federal agency 
or a state branch that is insured by the FDIC.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Proposed revisions: On July 27, 2018, FinCEN implemented the new 
version 1.2 of the SAR, which added, removed, or revised several data 
fields.\4\ The FinCEN revisions added or modified types and subtypes of 
suspicious activities, added new fields related to IP address 
information, and added new cyber event indicators. These revisions were 
made to ensure the collection of appropriate and current information in 
order to aid law enforcement in combating cyber-events and cyber-
enabled crime.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ The notice announcing the final submission to OMB was 
published in the Federal Register November 28, 2017 (82 FR 56325).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Board is proposing to adopt the revisions made by FinCEN.
    With respect to the file format changes for electronic submission, 
the BSA E-Filing System would continue to accept ASCII based batch 
files until January 1, 2019. Batch filers would have six months from 
the expected go-live date in June to adhere to the new XML 
specification.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \5\ See Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement 
Network (2018), ``FinCEN Announces Update to the Suspicious Activity 
Report (SAR) & Technical Webinar for Batch Filers,'' press release, 
January 26, 2018 https://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/docs/SARXMLAnnouncement_Jan2018.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR 2230 is authorized 
pursuant to the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 248(a)(1), 602, 625), 
the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1818(s)), the Bank Holding 
Company Act (12 U.S.C. 1844(c)), and

[[Page 1734]]

the International Banking Act (12 U.S.C. 3105(c)(2) and 3106(a)). The 
FR 2230 is mandatory. SARs are confidential and exempt from Freedom of 
Information Act (``FOIA'') disclosure by 31 U.S.C. 5319, which 
specifically provides that SARs ``are exempt from disclosure under 
section 552 of title 5,'' and FOIA exemption 3, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(3) 
(matters ``specifically exempted from disclosure by statute'').
    Consultation outside the agency: The current revisions to the BSA-
SAR data elements were discussed in the interagency Data Management 
Council led by FinCEN and of which the Board is a member.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, January 30, 
2019.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2019-00996 Filed 2-4-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6210-01-P