[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 43 (Monday, March 8, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13384-13385]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-04690]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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, without revision, the 
Recordkeeping and Disclosure Requirements Associated with Regulation O 
(FR O; OMB No. 7100-0382). FR O received a temporary six-month 
clearance on November 10, 2020. This action is to extend that clearance 
for three years.

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 
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, Without Revision, of the Following Information Collection

    Report title: Recordkeeping and Disclosure Requirements Associated 
with Regulation O.
    Agency form number: FR O.
    OMB control number: 7100-0382.
    Frequency: As needed.
    Respondents: Member banks.
    Estimated number of respondents: Recordkeeping: 1,570; disclosure: 
1,570.
    Estimated average hours per response: Recordkeeping: 4; disclosure; 
2.
    Estimated annual burden hours: Recordkeeping: 6,280; disclosure: 
3,140.
    General description of report: The Board's Regulation O--Loans to 
Executive Officers, Directors, and Principal Shareholders of Member 
Banks (12 CFR part 215) governs any extension of credit made by a 
member bank to an executive officer, director, or principal shareholder 
of the member bank, of any company of which the member bank is a 
subsidiary, and of any other subsidiary of that company. It prohibits 
such extensions of credit unless they are made on substantially the 
same terms (including interest rates and collateral) as those 
prevailing at the time for comparable transactions by the bank with 
other persons who are not employed by the bank and do not involve more 
than the normal risk of repayment or present other unfavorable 
features. Sections 215.8 and 215.9 of Regulation O contain 
recordkeeping and disclosure requirements on member banks.
    Pursuant to section 215.8 of Regulation O, respondents must 
maintain records necessary for compliance with the requirements of 
Regulation O. Any recordkeeping method adopted by a respondent shall 
identify, through an annual survey, all insiders of the respondent and 
maintain records of all extensions of credit to insiders of the 
respondent, including the amount and terms of each such extension of 
credit. Additionally, any recordkeeping method adopted by a respondent 
shall maintain records of extensions of credit to insiders of the 
respondent's affiliates by using either the survey method or borrower 
inquiry method, as set forth in Regulation O, or a different 
recordkeeping method if the appropriate federal banking agency 
determines that the respondent's method is at least as effective as the 
listed methods.
    Pursuant to section 215.9 of Regulation O, upon receipt of a 
written request from the public, a respondent must make available the 
names of each of its executive officers and each of its principal 
shareholders to whom, or to whose related interests, the member bank 
had outstanding as of the end of the latest previous quarter of the 
year, an extension of credit that, when aggregated with all other 
outstanding extensions of credit at such time from the member bank to 
such person and to all related interests of such person, equaled or 
exceeded 5 percent of the member bank's capital and unimpaired surplus 
or $500,000, whichever amount is less. Respondents are not required to 
disclose the specific amounts of individual extensions of credit. 
Additionally, each respondent must maintain records of all requests for 
the information described above and the disposition of such requests. 
These records may be disposed of after two years from the date of the 
request.
    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR O is authorized by 
section 7 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (section 7) \1\ and 
section 22(6) of the Federal Reserve Act (section 22(h)).\2\ Section 7 
authorizes the Board to require state member banks to report and 
publicly disclose information concerning extensions of credit by the 
state member bank to its executive officers, principal shareholders, or 
related interests of those persons. Section 22(h) authorizes the Board 
to prescribe rules related to extensions of credit to executive 
officers, directors, and principal shareholders.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ 12 U.S.C. 1817(k).
    \2\ 12 U.S.C. 375b. The Board also has the authority to require 
reports from state member banks (12 U.S.C. 248(a) and 324).
    \3\ Section 306(o) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 
Improvement Act of 1991 contains a similar authorization.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The obligation to respond is mandatory. The information disclosed 
under the disclosure requirements of Regulation O is not confidential. 
The information that is subject to the recordkeeping requirements of 
Regulation O would be maintained at each state member bank. For this 
information, the Freedom of Information Act (``FOIA'') would only be 
implicated if the Board obtained such records as part of the 
examination or supervision of a banking organization. In the event the 
records are obtained by the Board as part of an examination or 
supervision of a financial institution, this information may be 
considered confidential pursuant to exemption 8 of the FOIA, which 
protects information contained in ``examination, operating, or 
condition reports'' obtained in the bank supervisory process.\4\ In 
addition, in these cases, the information may also be

[[Page 13385]]

kept confidential under exemption 4 for the FOIA, which protects 
commercial or financial information obtained from a person that is 
privileged or confidential.\5\ Finally, this information may be kept 
confidential under exemption 6, which protects information ``the 
disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of 
personal privacy.'' \6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(8).
    \5\ 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4).
    \6\ 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Current actions: On April 22, 2020, the Board published an interim 
final rule in the Federal Register (85 FR 22348) requesting public 
comment for 60 days on the extension for three years of the FR O. The 
Board did not receive any comments relevant to the PRA.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, March 2, 2021.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Deputy Associate Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2021-04690 Filed 3-5-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210-01-P