[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 134 (Friday, July 12, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33264-33266]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-14874]


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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, with revision, the 
Federal Reserve Payments Study (FR 3066; OMB No. 7100-0351).

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.
    Office of Management and Budget (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.
    A copy of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) OMB submission, 
including the reporting form and instructions, supporting statement, 
and other documentation will be placed into OMB's public docket files. 
These documents also are available on the Federal Reserve 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 above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 15, 1984, OMB delegated to the Board 
authority under the PRA to approve 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 PRA submission, supporting 
statements, and approved collection of information

[[Page 33265]]

instrument(s) are placed into OMB's public docket files.

Final Approval Under OMB Delegated Authority of the Extension for Three 
Years, With Revision, of the Following Information Collection

    Report title: Federal Reserve Payments Study.
    Agency form number: FR 3066a, FR 3066b.
    OMB control number: 7100-0351.
    Frequency: Annual.
    Respondents: Depository and financial institutions, general-purpose 
payment networks, third-party payment processors, issuers of private-
label cards, and providers of various alternative payment initiation 
methods and systems.
    Estimated number of respondents: FR 3066a: 495; FR 3066b: 82.
    Estimated average hours per response: FR 3066a: 22 hours; FR 3066b: 
8 hours.
    Estimated annual burden hours: FR 3066a: 10,890 hours; FR 3066b: 
656 hours.
    General description of report: These surveys help to support the 
Federal Reserve System's (Federal Reserve's) role in the payments 
system.\1\ The FR 3066a and FR 3066b would consist of a full set of 
surveys for 2019 and, following the pattern established in the previous 
three-year period, smaller versions of the surveys for 2020 and 2021. 
The reference period for each survey is the previous calendar year. The 
Federal Reserve Payments Study (FRPS) publishes aggregate estimates of 
payment volumes and related information derived from the surveys.
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    \1\ The Federal Reserve plays a vital role in the U.S. payments 
system, fostering its safety and efficiency and providing a variety 
of financial services to depository institutions.
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    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The information obtained 
from the FR 3066 may be used in support of the Board's development and 
implementation of regulations, interpretations, and supervisory 
guidance for various payments, consumer protection, and other laws. 
Therefore, the FR 3066 is authorized pursuant to the Board's authority 
under the following statutes:
     Section 609 of the Expedited Funds Availability Act (12 
U.S.C. 4008);
     Sections 904 and 920 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act 
(15 U.S.C. 1693b and 1693o-2);
     Section 105 of the Truth In Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1604);
     Section 15 of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act 
(12 U.S.C. 5014); and
     Sections 11, 11A, 13, and 16 of the Federal Reserve Act 
(12 U.S.C. 248, 248a, 342, 248-1, 360, and 411).
    The FR 3066 is voluntary. Information collected on the FR 3066 may 
be granted confidential treatment under exemption (b)(4) of the Freedom 
of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4), which protects from disclosure 
``trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a 
person [that is] privileged or confidential.''
    Current actions: On March 27, 2019, the Board published a notice in 
the Federal Register (84 FR 11541) requesting public comment for 60 
days on the extension, with revision, of the Federal Reserve Payments 
Study. The revisions to the survey questions reflect an increased focus 
on payments fraud and security concerns, adaptations to new 
developments in payments technology, feedback from responding 
institutions, and experience from analyzing the survey outcomes. While 
some questions would be added as a result, as described below, more 
questions would be removed, resulting in a net reduction in questions 
for 2019 compared with 2016.
    The Board is discontinuing the collection of check images from 
depository institutions via the Viewpointe archive that was used to 
support the Check Sample Study (CSS) (FR 3066c) in previous survey 
periods. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta may continue a version of 
the CSS using sampled information from their own check processing 
operations, an approach that started in 2015. The Board is also 
discontinuing the optional FR 3066d because its purpose is redundant 
with the Payments Research Survey (FR 3067; OMB Control No. 7100-0355).
    The comment period for this notice expired on May 28, 2019. The 
Board received one comment letter from a trade association.

Detailed Discussion of Public Comments

    The comments contained in the comment letter, directed at FR 3066a, 
discuss the questions on volumes of payments and associated 
unauthorized third-party payments fraud (fraud) in the ACH section of 
the survey. The commenter suggests that the ACH information the Board 
collects in the ACH section of 3066a would be more accurate and 
reliable if it is consistently collected from originating depository 
financial institutions (ODFIs) instead of the receiving depository 
financial institution (RDFI). The proposed survey, however, does 
include volumes of payments and associated fraud from the ODFIs for ACH 
credits and ACH debits. Furthermore, the survey design and statistical 
estimation methods of the FR 3066a are based on collecting data from 
the paying bank side of all transactions, making collection of ACH 
debit volumes from the receiving depository financial institution 
(RDFI) necessary for accuracy and comparability with other types of 
payments in the surveys. Published works based on past surveys used ACH 
debit payments and fraud volumes collected from RDFIs to estimate 
reported ACH debit and fraud totals, and such collections must continue 
for comparability. The ACH debit payments and fraud volumes from ODFIs 
were added to the 2016 survey.
    The commenter also asserted that RDFIs would not be able to provide 
accurate information regarding the breakout of unauthorized ACH entries 
by same-day settlement and non-same-day settlement. In general, the 
Board expects that the paying bank and the collecting bank both have 
responsibilities to protect the payments system from fraud, and may 
have different information sets based on their unique perspectives. 
While the ODFIs are not the paying bank on ACH debits and therefore may 
not be ideal for the survey design and statistical estimation methods, 
their continued inclusion will nonetheless help to inform concerns 
about the accuracy, difficulty, and completeness of estimates 
constructed from both sources. For these reasons, the Board will retain 
the questions as written.
    The comment letter also generally opposes the collection of same-
day ACH data. Questions pertaining to same-day ACH volumes are included 
in the survey forms, in part, to allow the calculation of an aggregate 
fraud rate estimate for the associated fraud. Such data are unavailable 
from other sources, such as the ACH operators. Same-day ACH is 
relatively new, and public discourse has centered around whether ACH 
fraud would increase as a result of the faster settlement requirement. 
Although it is not possible to predict the outcome, the Board expects 
that the inclusion of the questions will help to inform concerns about 
data validity and estimate quality. The Board will retain the questions 
about same-day ACH payment and fraud volumes as written.
    The comment letter asserts that the Board has singled out same-day 
ACH for the collection of fraud information while not asking ``parties 
in other so-called faster'' payment systems for fraud information. The 
FR 3066a, however, does collect fraud information about person-to-
person (P2P) payments processed by the depository institutions,

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which is generally viewed as a faster payment alternative offered by 
those depository institutions. In addition, the FR 3066b attempts to 
collect comprehensive fraud data from P2P and money transfer 
processors, including those processors offering faster payment methods. 
The Board will retain the questions as written.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, July 9, 2019.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2019-14874 Filed 7-11-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6210-01-P