[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 160 (Friday, August 19, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51095-51098]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-17938]
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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY
[No. 2022-N-11]
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 or the
Agency) 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 September 30, 2023.
DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before October 18,
2022.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed
Collection; Comment Request: `Community Support Requirements, (No.
2022-N-11)' '' 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, Office
of General Counsel, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219,
ATTENTION: Proposed Collection; Comment Request: ``Community Support
Requirements, (No. 2022-N-11).''
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.
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: Mike Price, Senior Policy Analyst, by
email at [email protected], by telephone at (202) 649-3134;
Tiffani Moore, Supervisory Policy Analyst, by email at
[email protected], by telephone at (202) 649-3304; or Angela
Supervielle, Counsel, by email at [email protected], by
telephone at (202) 649-3973 (these are not toll-free numbers). For TTY/
TRS users with hearing and speech disabilities, dial 711 and ask to be
connected to any of the contact numbers above.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Background
1. Paperwork Reduction Act
Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain
approval from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or
sponsor. ``Collection of information'' is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3)
and 5 CFR 1320.3(c) to include agency collection of information from
ten or more persons. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of title 44 requires Federal
agencies to provide a 60-day notice \1\ in the Federal Register
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each
proposed extension of an existing collection of information, before
submitting the collection of information to OMB for approval. FHFA's
collection of information set forth in this document is titled the
``Community Support Requirements'' (assigned control number 2590-0005
by OMB). To comply with the PRA requirement, FHFA is publishing notice
of a proposed three-year extension of this collection of information.
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\1\ Following the close of this notice's 60-day comment period,
FHFA will publish a second notice with a 30-day comment period as
required by 44 U.S.C. 3507(b) and 5 CFR 1320.10(a).
\2\ 12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(1).
\3\ For purposes of the community support requirements, a long-
term advance is an advance with a term of maturity greater than one
year. 12 CFR 1290.1 (definition of ``long-term advance'').
\4\ See 12 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.
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2. Community Support Requirements
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.2 3 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) \4\ and record of lending to first-
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time homebuyers.\5\ 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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\5\ 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 statutory and regulatory community support
standards.\6\ 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 Form 060, a member
that is subject to the CRA must record its most recent CRA rating and
the year of that rating. Part II of Form 060 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. A copy of the current
Form 060 and related instructions appear at the end of this Notice.
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\6\ 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 Form 060 is
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 the Bank
Affordable Housing Programs (AHP), Community Investment Programs (CIP),
and Community Investment Cash Advance (CICA) programs for failure to
meet the community support requirements.\7\ Part 1290 permits Bank
members whose access to long-term advances has been restricted to apply
directly to FHFA to remove the restriction.\8\
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\7\ See 12 CFR 1290.5(b), (e).
\8\ 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 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 the Bank
AHP, CIP, and CICA programs.
The OMB control number for this information collection is 2590-
0005, which is due to expire on September 30, 2023. The respondents are
Bank member institutions.
C. Burden Estimate
FHFA has analyzed the two facets of this information collection 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 2,094 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 6,600 Bank members. With exceptions, most
Bank members must submit a Community Support Statement biennially. Non-
depository community development financial institution (CDFI) Bank
members are exempt from filing. At the end of 2021, there were 68 non-
depository CDFI Bank members. Bank members who have been Bank members
for less than one year as of March 31 of the year the submission is
required are also exempt from filing. The Banks have added, on average,
118 new members per year over the last three years. FHFA arrives at a
total estimate of about 6,414 respondents required to file each cycle
(6,600 total members minus (68 non-depository CDFI members + 118 exempt
new members biennially)). Under the Community Support biennial review
cycle, members submit Community Support Statements every other year.
Accordingly, FHFA estimates that the total number of respondents per
year is about 3,207 (half of 6,414).
FHFA estimates that the average preparation and submission time for
each Community Support Statement is 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,
therefore, 2,085 hours (3,207 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 prepare and 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 Bank members in connection with the preparation and
submission of requests to remove a restriction on access to long-term
advances is, therefore, 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.
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P
Shawn Bucholtz,
Chief Data Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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[FR Doc. 2022-17938 Filed 8-18-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-C