[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 140 (Tuesday, July 21, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44079-44080]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-15405]


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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 
Survey of Small Business and Farm Lending (FR 2028; OMB No. 7100-0061). 
The revisions are effective for the December 31, 2020, as-of date with 
the transmission period beginning on January 18, 2021, based on loan 
activity over the fourth quarter 2020.

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.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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.
    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: Survey of Small Business and Farm Lending.

[[Page 44080]]

    Agency form number: FR 2028.
    OMB control number: 7100-0061.
    Effective Date: The revisions are effective for the December 31, 
2020, as-of date with the transmission period beginning on January 18, 
2021, based on loan activity over the fourth quarter 2020.
    Frequency: Quarterly.
    Respondents: Domestically chartered commercial banks.
    Estimated number of respondents: FR 2028B: 250; FR 2028S: 250; FR 
2028D: 398.
    Estimated average hours per response: FR 2028B: 1.4; FR 2028S: 0.1; 
FR 2028D: 3.
    Estimated annual burden hours: FR 2028B: 1,400; FR 2028S: 100; FR 
2028D: 4,776.
    General description of report: The Survey of Small Business and 
Farm Lending (previously the Survey of Terms of Lending) collects 
unique information concerning price and certain nonprice terms of loans 
made to businesses and farmers each quarter (February, May, August, and 
November). The FR 2028B collects detailed data on individual loans 
funded during the first full business week of the mid-month of each 
quarter and the FR 2028S collects the prime interest rate for each day 
of the survey week from FR 2028B respondents. The FR 2028D provides 
focused and enhanced information on small business lending including 
rates, terms, credit availability, and reasons for their changes. The 
FR 2028D collects quarterly average quantitative data on terms of small 
business loans and qualitative information on changes and the reasons 
for changes in the terms of lending. From these sample data, estimates 
of the terms of business loans and farm loans extended are constructed. 
The aggregate estimates for business loans are published in the Federal 
Reserve Bank of Kansas City's quarterly release, Small Business Lending 
Survey, and aggregate estimates for farm loans are published in the 
statistical release, Agricultural Finance Databook.
    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR 2028 is authorized 
by section 11(a)(2) of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 248(a)(2)), 
which authorizes the Board to require any depository institution to 
make such reports of its assets and liabilities as the Board may 
determine to be necessary or desirable to enable the Board to discharge 
its responsibilities to monitor and control monetary and credit 
aggregates. The FR 2028 survey submissions are voluntary.
    Individual respondents may request that information submitted to 
the Board through a survey under FR 2028 be kept confidential. If a 
respondent requests confidential treatment, the Board will determine 
whether the information is entitled to confidential treatment on a 
case-by-case basis. The Board will consider whether information 
collected through these surveys may be kept confidential under 
exemption 4 for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which protects 
privileged or confidential commercial or financial information (5 
U.S.C. 552(b)(4)), or any other applicable FOIA exemption.
    Current actions: On March 2, 2020, the Board published a notice in 
the Federal Register (85 FR 12298) requesting public comment for 60 
days on the extension, with revision, of the FR 2028. The Federal 
Reserve proposed to implement changes to the form and instructions of 
the FR 2028D. The revisions consist of deleting and adding items, and 
modifying or clarifying instructions of existing data items. The 
Federal Reserve is making most of these changes in an effort to reduce 
reporting burden for firms, clarify the expectations around and the 
intent of reporting instructions and requirements, and to improve data 
quality. A limited number of revisions would add items to increase 
clarity in quantitative loan data. No changes are being made to the FR 
2028B and FR 2028S. The comment period for this notice expired on May 
1, 2020. The Board received two comment letters from two banks.
    One commenter stated that the survey is burdensome and made a 
suggestion on how to reduce burden by formatting the requested data in 
a form that can be more easily automated and uploaded. Most of the 
revisions to the survey are intended to reduce respondent burden while 
still maintaining the survey's core purpose, which is to provide 
economists, policymakers, and the general public with crucial small 
business lending data. These revisions include the removal of over 35% 
of the survey line items and further clarification to the definition of 
a small business loan. These revisions should alleviate some of the 
burden incurred while gathering survey data. The current format of the 
data is used to collect the valuable qualitative data as well as the 
quantitative data. However, the Federal Reserve is exploring 
opportunities to move the survey to an automated platform that 
increases standardization of the data collection with other series 
collected by the Federal Reserve's Statistics business line. Another 
commenter supported the proposed revisions.
    The Board adopted the extension, with revision, of the FR 2028 as 
originally proposed effective for the December 31, 2020, as-of date.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, July 13, 2020.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2020-15405 Filed 7-20-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210-01-P