[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10823-10824]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-03748]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY


Community Development Financial Institutions Fund

ACTION: Notice and request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing 
effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general 
public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment 
on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Currently, the Community 
Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), U.S. Department of 
the Treasury, is soliciting comments concerning the Community 
Development Financial Institutions CDFI Program (CDFI Program) and New 
Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program) Annual Report including the 
Awards Management and Information System (AMIS) Compliance and 
Performance Reporting (ACPR).

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before April 27, 2020 to 
be assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments via email to Greg Bischak, Program 
Manager for Financial Strategies and Research, CDFI Fund, at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Greg Bischak, Program Manager for 
Financial Strategies and Research, Community Development Financial 
Institutions Fund, U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania 
Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20220 or by telephone at (202) 653-0300. Other 
information regarding the CDFI Fund and its programs may be obtained 
through the CDFI Fund's website at http://www.cdfifund.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: CDFI Program and NMTC Program Annual Report including AMIS.
    OMB Number: 1559-0027.
    Abstract: This collection captures quantitative information from 
Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and Community 
Development Entities (CDEs) at the institution and transaction levels. 
This information is used to assess: (1) The recipient's/allocatee's 
activities as detailed in its application materials; (2) the 
recipient's/allocatee's approved use of the assistance; (3) the 
recipient's/allocatee's financial condition; (4) the socio-economic 
characteristics of recipient's/allocatee's borrowers/investees, loan 
and investment terms, repayment status, and community development 
outcomes; and (5) overall compliance with the terms and conditions of 
the assistance/allocation agreement entered into by the CDFI Fund and 
the recipient/allocatee.
    A CDFI Program or Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA 
Program) recipient must submit an Annual Report that is comprised of 
several sections that depend on the program and the type of award. The 
specific components that comprise a recipient's Annual Report are set 
forth in the assistance agreement that the recipient enters into with 
the CDFI Fund in order to receive a CDFI Program or a NACA Program 
award. The current CDFI/NACA reporting requirements can be found in the 
assistance agreement templates located on the CDFI Fund website at 
www.cdfifund.gov.
    For CDFI/NACA recipients, three significant changes were made to 
annual reporting. First, as part of its IT modernization strategy, the 
CDFI Fund developed a unified technology platform called the Awards 
Management Information System (AMIS) that facilitates better data 
collection and efficiency for users, improves data validations, and 
enhances computing capacity. Second, in developing the AMIS-based 
Compliance and Performance Reporting platform (ACPR), we sought to 
reduce the reporting burden by eliminating the Institution Level Report 
(ILR) which cut aggregate recipient reporting time by 3,066 hours. 
Third, the CDFI/NACA Transaction Level Report (TLR) requirements were 
substantially reduced by 70% by limiting transactional reporting to 
only newly originated and closed loans and investments and eliminating 
reporting on outstanding loans and investments.
    For NMTC Program allocatees, the reporting structure remained the 
same. Each allocatee must submit an Annual Report that comprises: (i) A 
financial statement that has been audited by an independent certified 
public accountant; (ii) an Institution Level Report (ILR) (including 
the IRS Compliance Questions section), if the allocatee has issued any 
Qualified Equity Investments; and (iii) a Transaction Level Report 
(TLR) if the allocatee has issued any Qualified Low-Income Community 
Investments in the form of loans or investments. The components that 
comprise an allocatee's Annual Report are set forth in the allocation 
agreement that the allocatee enters into with the CDFI Fund in order to 
receive a NMTC Program allocation. These NMTC requirements can be found 
in the allocation agreement templates located on the CDFI Fund website 
at www.cdfifund.gov. With the efficiency gains from the implementation 
of AMIS, the average NMTC reporting time has gone down slightly, while 
the total number of reporting entities has remained the same so there 
is a slight net reduction in total burden. Altogether, the total annual 
burden for

[[Page 10824]]

both CDFI/NACA and NMTC annual reporting has decreased substantially 
from 53,175 hours in 2017 to 34,000 hours in 2020.
    Type of Review: Regular Review.
    Affected Public: CDFIs and CDEs; including businesses or other for-
profit institutions, non-profit entities, and State, local and Tribal 
entities participating in CDFI Fund programs.
    Estimated Number of Respondents:
    CDFI Annual TLR: 300.
    NMTC Annual TLR and ILR: 275.
    Estimated Annual Time (in hours) per Respondent:
    CDFI Annual TLR: 40.
    NMTC Annual TLR and ILR: 80.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden in Hours: 34,000.
    CDFI Annual TLR: 12,000.
    NMTC Annual TLR and ILR: 22,000.
    Request for Comments: Comments submitted in response to this notice 
will be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval. All 
comments will become a matter of public record. Comments are invited on 
all aspects of the information collections, but commentators may wish 
to focus particular attention on: (a) The cost for CDFIs and CDEs to 
operate and maintain the services/systems required to provide the 
required information; (b) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected; (c) whether the collection 
of information is necessary for the proper evaluation of the 
effectiveness and impact of the CDFI Fund's programs, including whether 
the information has practical utility; (d) the accuracy of the CDFI 
Fund's estimate of the burden of the collection of information; (e) 
ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information including 
through the use of technology, such as software for internal accounting 
and geocoding to capture geographic detail while streamlining and 
aggregating TLR reporting for upload to AMIS, and; (f) what methods 
might be used to improve the data quality, internal accounting and 
efficiency of reporting transactions for serving other targeted 
populations.
    Please note that this request for public comment is necessary in 
order to renew the OMB data collection 1559-0027 under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act, (formerly CIIS) and now executed through AMIS. Later in 
2020 the CDFI Fund plans to publish a request for public comment to 
solicit feedback on proposed additions and revisions to the NMTC and 
CDFI TLRs and estimates on reporting burdens which are not contained in 
this notice.

(Authority: 12 U.S.C. 4707 et seq.; 26 U.S.C. CFR part 1805)

Jodie Harris,
Director, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
[FR Doc. 2020-03748 Filed 2-24-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4810-70-P