[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 230 (Friday, November 29, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65815-65816]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25822]


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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 
Interchange Transaction Fees Survey. The revisions are applicable as of 
the collection of calendar year 2019.

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--

[[Page 65816]]

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 
collections of information 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 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: Interchange Transaction Fees Survey.
    Agency form number: FR 3064.
    OMB control number: 7100-0344.
    Effective date: The revisions are effective for the collection of 
calendar year 2019.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondents: Debit card issuers and payment card networks.
    Estimated number of respondents: FR 3064a, 541 respondents; and FR 
3064b, 15 respondents.
    Estimated average hours per response: FR 3064a, 160 hours; and FR 
3064b, 75 hours.
    Estimated annual burden hours: FR 3064a, 86,560 hours; and FR 
3064b, 1,125 hours.
    General description of report: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform 
and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) requires the Board 
to disclose, at least every two years, such aggregate or summary 
information concerning the costs incurred for, and interchange 
transaction fees received by, issuers with respect to debit card 
transactions as the Board considers appropriate or in the public 
interest. The data from these surveys are used in fulfilling that 
disclosure requirement. In addition, the Board uses data from the 
payment card network survey (FR 3064b) to publicly report on an annual 
basis the extent to which networks have established separate 
interchange fees for exempt and covered issuers.\1\ Finally, the Board 
uses the data from these surveys in determining whether to propose 
revisions to the interchange fee standards in Debit Card Interchange 
Fees and Routing (Regulation II) (12 CFR part 235). The Dodd-Frank Act 
provides the Board with authority to require debit card issuers and 
payment card networks to submit information in order to carry out 
provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act regarding interchange fee standards.
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    \1\ Average debit card interchange fee by payment card network 
http://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/regii-average-interchange-fee.htm.
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    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR 3064 is authorized 
by subsection 920(a) of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, which was 
amended by section 1075(a) of the Dodd-Frank Act.\2\ This statutory 
provision requires the Board, at least once every two years,\3\ to 
disclose aggregate or summary information concerning the costs incurred 
and interchange transaction fees charged or received by issuers or 
payment card networks in connection with the authorization, clearance 
or settlement of electronic debit transactions as the Board considers 
appropriate and in the public interest.\4\ It also provides the Board 
with authority to require issuers and payment card networks to provide 
information to enable the Board to carry out the provisions of the 
subsection.\5\ The FR 3064 is mandatory. In accordance with the 
statutory requirement, the Board releases aggregate or summary 
information from the survey responses. In addition, the Board releases, 
at the network level, the percentage of total number of transactions, 
the percentage of total value of transactions, and the average 
transaction value for exempt and not-exempt issuers obtained on the FR 
3064b. The Board has determined to release this information both 
because it can already be determined mathematically based on the 
information the Board currently releases on average interchange fees 
and because the Board believes the release of such information may be 
useful to issuers and merchants in choosing payment card networks in 
which to participate and to policymakers in assessing the effect of 
Regulation II on the level of interchange fees received by issuers over 
time.
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    \2\ 15 U.S.C. 1693o-2.
    \3\ The subsection refers to bi-annual disclosures and the Board 
interprets this to mean once every two years. See 76 FR 43458.
    \4\ 15 U.S.C. 1693o-2(a)(3)(B).
    \5\ Id.
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    The remaining individual issuer and payment card information 
collected on these surveys may be kept confidential under exemption 
(b)(4) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the extent that, if 
released, this information would cause substantial harm to the 
competitive position of the survey respondents.\6\
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    \6\ See 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4) (exempting from disclosure ``trade 
secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a 
person [that is] privileged or confidential'').
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    Current actions: On August 12, 2019, the Board published a notice 
in the Federal Register (84 FR 39847) requesting public comment for 60 
days on the extension, with revision, of the FR 3064. The Board 
proposed revisions to the FR 3064a to (1) remove the breakout of 
interchange fees reimbursed to acquirers as a result of chargebacks or 
returns, (2) add tokenization as an option for fraud prevention 
activity, and (3) update the survey instructions and glossary terms to 
improve clarity. In addition, the Board proposed revisions to the FR 
3064b to (1) remove a question about the number of merchant 
establishments, (2) remove questions about offering an interchange fee 
schedule that differentiates between exempt and non-exempt issuers, (3) 
remove questions about refunds of interchange fees to acquirers for 
chargebacks and returns, and (4) update the survey instructions and 
glossary of terms to improve clarity. The comment period for this 
notice expired on October 11, 2019. The Board did not receive any 
comments. The revisions will be implemented as proposed.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, November 22, 
2019.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2019-25822 Filed 11-27-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6210-01-P