[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 14 (Wednesday, January 22, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3680-3683]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-00933]
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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY
[No. 2020-N-3]
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.
ACTION: 60-Day notice of submission of information collection for
approval from Office of Management and Budget.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking
public comments concerning an information collection known as
``Community Support Requirements,'' which has been assigned control
number 2590-0005 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA
intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and
approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due
to expire on March 31, 2020.
DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before March 23,
2020.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed
Collection; Comment Request: `Community Support Requirements, (No.
2020-N-3)' '' by any of the following methods:
Agency website: www.fhfa.gov/open-for-comment-or-input.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your
comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email
to FHFA at [email protected] to ensure timely receipt by the agency.
Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Eighth
Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed
Collection; Comment Request: ``Community Support Requirements, (No.
2020-N-3).''
We will post all public comments we receive without change,
including any personal information you provide, such as your name and
address, email address, and telephone number, on the FHFA website at
http://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will
be available for examination by the public through the electronic
comment docket for this PRA Notice also located on the FHFA website.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Deattra D. Perkins, Senior Policy
Analyst, Division of Housing Mission & Goals, [email protected],
(202) 649-3133; or Eric Raudenbush, Associate General Counsel,
[email protected], (202) 649-3084, (these are not toll-free
numbers), Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW,
Washington, DC 20219. The Telecommunications Device for the Deaf is
(800) 877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
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A. Background
The Federal Home Loan Bank System (System) consists of eleven
regional Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and the Office of Finance (a
joint office of the Banks that issues and services their debt
securities). The Banks are wholesale financial institutions, organized
under authority of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) to serve
the public interest by enhancing the availability of residential
housing finance and community lending credit through their member
institutions and, to a limited extent, through eligible non-member
``housing associates.'' Each Bank is structured as a regional
cooperative that is owned and controlled by member financial
institutions located within its district, which are also its primary
customers.
Section 10(g)(1) of the Bank Act requires the Director of FHFA to
promulgate regulations establishing standards of community investment
or service that Bank member institutions must meet in order to maintain
access to long-term advances (i.e., loans with a maturity of five years
or greater made by a Bank to a member).\1\ Section 10(g)(2) of the Bank
Act requires that, in establishing these community support requirements
for Bank members, FHFA take into account factors such as the member's
performance under the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) \2\ and
record of lending to first-time homebuyers.\3\ FHFA's community support
regulation, which establishes standards and review criteria for
determining compliance with section 10(g) of the Bank Act, is set forth
at 12 CFR part 1290.
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\1\ See 12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(1).
\2\ 12 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.
\3\ See 12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(2).
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Part 1290 requires that each Bank member subject to community
support review submit to FHFA biennially a completed Community Support
Statement (Form 060), which contains several short questions the
answers to which are used by FHFA to assess the responding member's
compliance with the community support standards.\4\ Members are
strongly encouraged to complete and submit Form 060 online, but may
submit a version via email or fax if they cannot complete the
submission online. In part I of the Form, a member that is subject to
the CRA must record its most recent CRA rating and the year of that
rating. Part II of the Form addresses a member's efforts to assist
first-time homebuyers. A member may either record the number and dollar
amount of mortgage loans made to first-time homebuyers in the previous
or current calendar year (part II.A), or indicate the types of programs
or activities it has undertaken to assist first-time homebuyers by
checking selections from a list (part II.B), or do both. If a member
has received a CRA rating of ``Outstanding,'' it need not complete part
II of the Form. A copy of the current Form and related instructions
appear at the end of this Notice.
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\4\ See 12 CFR 1290.2. Non-depository community development
financial institutions and institutions that have been Bank members
for less than one year as of March 31 of the year the forms are due
are not required to submit Form 060.
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Part 1290 also establishes the circumstances under which FHFA will
restrict a member's access to long-term Bank advances and to Affordable
Housing Program (AHP), Community Investment Program (CIP) and Community
Investment Cash Advance (CICA) programs for failure to meet the
community support requirements.\5\ It permits Bank members whose access
to long-term advances has been restricted to apply directly to FHFA to
remove the restriction if certain criteria are met.\6\
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\5\ See 12 CFR 1290.5(b), (e).
\6\ See 12 CFR 1290.5(d).
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B. Need for and Use of the Information Collection
FHFA uses the information collection contained in FHFA Form 060 and
part 1290 to determine whether Bank members satisfy the statutory and
regulatory community support requirements and to ensure that, as
required by statute and regulation, only Bank members that meet those
requirements maintain continued access to long-term Bank advances and
to AHP, CIP, and CICA programs.
The OMB control number for this information collection is 2590-
0005, which is due to expire on March 31, 2020. The respondents are
Bank member institutions.
C. Burden Estimate
FHFA has analyzed the two facets of this information collection in
order to estimate the hour burdens that the collection will impose upon
Bank members annually over the next three years. Based on that
analysis, FHFA estimates that the total annual hour burden will be
2,154 hours. The method FHFA used to determine the annual hour burden
for each facet of the information collection is explained in detail
below.
1. Community Support Statements
There are currently about 6,800 Bank members. Most of these are
required to submit a completed Community Support Statement biennially,
with members that are non-depository community development financial
institutions (CDFIs) or that have been members for less than one year
as of March 31st of the year submission is required exempted from the
submission requirement. Based on the facts that there were 60 non-
depository CDFI Bank members as of September 30, 2019, and that the
average annual number of new Bank members system-wide was about 140
over the last three years, FHFA estimates that about 6,600 members will
be required to submit the biennial statement over each of the next
several cycles, which corresponds to an annual average of 3,300
respondents. FHFA estimates that the average preparation time for each
Community Support Statement will be 0.65 hours. The estimate for the
total annual hour burden on Bank members in connection with the
preparation and submission of Community Support Statements is 2,145
hours (3,300 Statements x 0.65 hours).
2. Requests To Remove a Restriction on Access to Long-Term Advances
FHFA estimates that an annual average of 12 Bank members whose
access to long-term advances and to AHP, CIP, and CICA programs has
been restricted will submit requests to FHFA to remove those
restrictions, and that the average preparation time for each request
will be 0.75 hours. The estimate for the total annual hour burden on
members in connection with the preparation and submission of requests
to remove a restriction on access to long-term advances is 9 hours (12
requests x 0.75 hours).
D. Comment Request
FHFA requests written comments on the following: (1) Whether the
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical
utility; (2) the accuracy of FHFA's estimates of the burdens of the
collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility,
and clarity of the information collected; and (4) ways to minimize the
burden of the collection of information on respondents, including
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of
information technology.
Dated: January 15, 2020.
Kevin Winkler,
Chief Information Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P
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[FR Doc. 2020-00933 Filed 1-21-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-C