[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 3, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31866-31868]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-14261]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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, without 
revision, the Recordkeeping Provisions Associated with Guidance on 
Leveraged Lending (FR 4203; OMB No. 7100-0354).

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before September 3, 2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by FR 4203, by any of 
the following methods:
     Agency website: https://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. Accordingly, your 
comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact 
information. Public comments may also be viewed electronically or in 
paper in Room 146, 1709 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006, 
between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. For security reasons, the 
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,

[[Page 31867]]

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 https://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.

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 Under OMB Delegated Authority To Extend for Three Years, 
Without Revision, the Following Information Collection

    Report title: Recordkeeping Provisions Associated with Guidance on 
Leveraged Lending.
    Agency form number: FR 4203.
    OMB control number: 7100-0354.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Respondents: All financial institutions substantively engaged in 
leveraged lending activities supervised by the Board.
    Estimated number of respondents: 40.
    Estimated average hours per response: 755 hours.
    Estimated annual burden hours: 30,200 hours.
    General description of report: The Interagency Guidance on 
Leveraged Lending (Guidance) \1\ outlines high-level principles related 
to safe-and-sound leveraged lending activities. The Guidance includes a 
number of voluntary recordkeeping provisions that apply to financial 
institutions for which the Board is the primary federal supervisor that 
engage in leveraged lending activities, including bank holding 
companies, savings and loan holding companies, state member banks, and 
state-chartered branches and agencies of foreign banks that engage in 
these activities. There are no reporting forms associated with this 
information collection (the FR 4203 designation is for internal 
purposes only).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ ``Interagency Guidance on Leveraged Lending,'' March 21, 
2013, available at https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/srletters/sr1303a1.pdf. The Guidance was published jointly by the 
Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the 
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Guidance includes several provisions that suggest financial 
institutions engage in recordkeeping. The guidance states that 
institutions should maintain:
     Well-defined underwriting standards that, among other 
things, define acceptable leverage levels and describe amortization 
expectations for senior and subordinate debt;
     sound management information systems that enable 
management to identify, aggregate, and monitor leveraged exposures and 
comply with policy across all business lines;
     strong pipeline management policies and procedures that, 
among other things, provide for real-time information on exposures and 
limits, and exceptions to the timing of expected distributions and 
approved hold levels; and
     guidelines for conducting periodic portfolio and pipeline 
stress tests to quantify the potential impact of economic and market 
conditions on the institution's asset quality, earnings, liquidity, and 
capital.
    Many community banks are not subject to the Guidance because they 
do not engage in leveraged lending. The limited number of community and 
smaller institutions that are involved in leveraged lending activities 
may discuss with the Federal Reserve System how to implement these 
collections of information in a cost-effective manner that is 
appropriate for the complexity of their exposures and activities.
    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The recordkeeping 
provisions of the Guidance are authorized pursuant to sections 9(6), 
25, and 25A of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 324, 602, and 625) 
(for state member banks, agreement corporations, and Edge corporations, 
respectively); section 5(c) of the Bank Holding Company Act (12 U.S.C. 
1844(c)) (for bank holding companies); section 10(b)(3) of the Home 
Owners' Loan Act (12 U.S.C. 1467a(b)(3)) (for savings and loan holding 
companies); and section 7(c)(2) of the International Banking Act (12 
U.S.C. 3105(c)(2)) (for state-licensed branches and agencies of foreign 
banks, other than insured branches).
    The information collections under the FR 4203 are voluntary. 
Because these records would be maintained at each banking organization, 
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) would only be implicated if the 
Board obtained such records as part of the examination or supervision 
of a banking organization. In the event the records are obtained by the 
Board as part of an examination or supervision of a financial 
institution, this information may be withheld from disclosure pursuant 
to exemption 8 of the FOIA, which protects information contained in 
``examination, operating, or condition reports'' obtained in the bank 
supervisory process (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(8)). In addition, the information 
may also be kept confidential under exemption 4 of the FOIA, which 
protects ``commercial or financial information obtained from a person 
[that is] privileged or confidential'' (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)).
    Consultation outside the agency: The Board, FDIC, and OCC are 
discussing whether revisions to the interagency guidance are 
appropriate.
    Current actions: Because there is no actual collection of 
information as part of the leverage lending guidance, the Board's 
estimates of the number of respondents is a conservative estimate based 
on available supervisory information. The Board invites comment on the 
number of institutions

[[Page 31868]]

that are affected by the leverage lending guidance.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, June 28, 2019.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2019-14261 Filed 7-2-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6210-01-P