[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 137 (Wednesday, July 19, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46139-46140]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-15276]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of Economic Analysis


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Services Surveys: BE-140, Benchmark Survey of Insurance 
Transactions by U.S. Insurance Companies With Foreign Persons

AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of information collection, request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information 
collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information 
collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The 
purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment 
preceding submission of the collection to OMB.

DATES: To ensure consideration, comments regarding this proposed 
information collection must be received on or before September 18, 
2023.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments to 
Christopher Stein, Chief, Services Surveys Branch, Bureau of Economic 
Analysis, by email to [email protected] or [email protected]. 
Please reference OMB Control Number 0608-0073 in the subject line of 
your comments. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or 
otherwise sensitive or protected information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
specific questions related to collection activities should be directed 
to Christopher Stein, Chief, Services Surveys Branch, Bureau of 
Economic Analysis; 301-278-9189; or via email at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract

    The Benchmark Survey of Insurance Transactions by U.S. Insurance 
Companies with Foreign Persons (Form BE-140) is a periodic survey, 
conducted every five years, that collects data from U.S. persons who 
engage in international trade in covered insurance transactions. This 
mandatory benchmark survey, conducted under the authority of the 
International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act, covers the 
universe of transactions in insurance services with foreign persons and 
is BEA's most comprehensive survey of such transactions. The survey was 
last conducted in 2019, covering the 2018 reporting year. A response is 
required from U.S. persons subject to the reporting requirements of the 
BE-140, whether or not they are contacted by BEA, to ensure complete 
coverage of transactions in insurance services between U.S. and foreign 
persons. A U.S. person means any individual, branch, partnership, 
associated group, association, estate, trust, corporation, or other 
organization (whether or not organized under the laws of any State), 
resident in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the 
United States. A U.S. person must report if they had transactions with 
foreign persons in the categories covered by the survey during the 2023 
calendar year. For U.S. persons that had combined transactions that 
were $2 million or less (based on absolute value) in the insurance 
services covered by the survey for calendar year 2023, a completed 
benchmark would include totals for each type of transaction in which 
they engaged. A U.S. person whose combined transactions with foreign 
persons exceeded $2 million (based on absolute value) in the insurance 
categories covered by the survey for calendar year 2023, is required to 
provide data on the total transactions of each of the covered types of 
insurance transactions and must disaggregate the totals by country and 
by relationship to the foreign counterparty (foreign affiliate, foreign 
parent group, or unaffiliated).
    The data are needed to monitor U.S. trade in insurance services, to 
analyze the impact of these cross-border services on the U.S. and 
foreign economies, to compile and improve the U.S. economic accounts, 
to support U.S. commercial policy on trade in services, to conduct 
trade promotion, and to improve the ability of U.S. businesses to 
identify and evaluate market opportunities. The data are used in 
estimating the trade in insurance services component of the U.S. 
international transactions accounts (ITAs) and national income and 
product accounts (NIPAs).
    The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is proposing to make several 
modifications to the survey for 2023 to further align BEA's statistics 
with international guidelines and to collect additional information 
that can be used to improve the current estimation methodologies for 
published insurance services transactions, increasing the quality and 
usefulness of BEA's statistics on trade in insurance services. To 
evaluate the feasibility of these changes, BEA conducted outreach to a 
sample of nine respondents to the Quarterly Survey of Insurance 
Transactions by U.S. Insurance Companies with Foreign Persons (BE-45). 
Reporter feedback gathered substantiated the ability of the respondents 
to comply with the additional data requests, and that the survey 
changes should not impose a material increase in reporting burden.
    BEA does not plan to change the exemption levels used for the 
previous benchmark survey in 2018.
    BEA proposes to:
    (1) Add a question to collect information on the largest states, 
districts, or territories (up to three) for exports and imports of 
services. This information would be required of all survey respondents 
and would allow BEA to produce estimates of the value of exports and 
imports of services by U.S. state for the first time.
    (2) Add a question on employment size class. This information would 
be required of all survey respondents to aid in identifying the number 
of small businesses reporting on the survey, and the volume of services 
trade data reported by small businesses.

[[Page 46140]]

    (3) Better distinguish between life insurance and nonlife insurance 
for exports of direct insurance by separately collecting a percentage 
break out of the U.S. Reporter's global totals for premiums and losses 
on direct insurance exports for the categories of insurance with a 
savings component, freight, property and casualty, and other. This 
detail would be required from all reporters and collection would result 
in multiple methodological improvements, notably, enabling BEA to 
publish direct insurance broken down as suggested by international 
guidelines.
    (4) Directly collect premium supplements for exports and use 
reported data to improve the estimation of premium supplements for 
imports. Only those reporters subject to filing country and affiliation 
detail on the mandatory schedules (i.e., those reporters exceeding $2 
million in combined transactions, based on absolute value) will be 
required to respond to this question.
    BEA also plans to discontinue the collection of the question 
requesting the U.S. Reporter's organization type and would no longer 
collect information on reinsurance reserve transfers (Schedule C) and 
catastrophic losses (Schedule D). These items are no longer necessary 
given other modifications made to the survey.
    BEA estimates there will be minimal impact to the reporting burden 
because the burden associated with the additional data items required 
on the survey should not require an extensive search within company 
records, and burden associated with these new items will be offset by 
burden reductions from deleted survey items. Proposals one and two 
should not affect burden because BEA believes these data to be readily 
available in reporter records, or can be provided by many respondents 
based on recall, without the need to search existing records. 
Additionally, proposal three is a minor modification to data already 
collected on the 2018 BE-140 benchmark survey. Survey respondents who 
provided a breakout of direct insurance into life, freight, and other 
in 2018 will now be required to report transactions in insurance with a 
savings component, freight, property and casualty, and other. The 
additional category should have minimal impact on reporters, because, 
in 2018 reporters had to separately identify these transactions in 
order to classify them among the three categories used on the previous 
benchmark survey. BEA estimates there will be a 0.5 hour increase in 
reporting burden associated with the collection of detail on premium 
supplements, proposal four. However, this additional data will only be 
required of respondents required to report country and affiliation 
detail on the mandatory schedules, whom BEA believes will also see a 
comparable reduction in burden associated with the elimination of 
Schedules C and D from the survey.
    Therefore, although there are some expected increases in burden, 
BEA believes these increases to be negligible and primarily offset by a 
reduction in burden from data collected in 2018 which will no longer be 
collected on the 2023 survey. BEA believes the additional data is 
readily available in existing company accounting records, and therefore 
average burden for completing the survey will continue to be 5 hours 
per response. The language in the instructions and definitions will be 
reviewed and adjusted as necessary to clarify survey requirements.

II. Method of Collection

    BEA will contact potential respondents by mail in January of 2024 
to announce the upcoming benchmark survey. Respondents would then be 
notified in May 2024 that a completed BE-140 form is due July 31, 2024. 
Reports would be required from each U.S. person that had transactions 
in the covered insurance services with foreign persons during 2023. A 
response is required from persons subject to the reporting requirements 
of the BE-140 Benchmark Survey of Insurance Transactions by U.S. 
Insurance Companies with Foreign Persons, whether or not they are 
contacted by BEA.
    BEA offers its electronic filing option, the eFile system, for use 
in reporting on Form BE-140. For more information about eFile, go to 
www.bea.gov/efile. In addition, BEA posts all its survey forms and 
reporting instructions on its website, www.bea.gov/ssb. These may be 
downloaded, completed, printed, and submitted via fax or mail.

III. Data

    OMB Control Number: 0608-0073.
    Form Number(s): BE-140.
    Type of Review: Regular submission.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 1,300 annually (1,000 reporting 
mandatory data and 300 that would file exemption claims or voluntary 
responses).
    Estimated Time per Response: 9 hours is the average for the 600 
respondents filing data by country and affiliation; 2 hours for the 400 
respondents filing data by transaction type only, and 1 hour for those 
filing an exemption claim or other response. Hours may vary 
considerably among respondents because of differences in company size 
and complexity.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 6,500.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: $0.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: International Investment and Trade in Services 
Survey Act (Pub. L. 94-472, 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108, as amended).

IV. Request for Comments

    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the Agency, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden 
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information; 
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (d) 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.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. We will include or summarize each comment in our request 
to OMB to approve this ICR. Before including your address, phone 
number, email address, or other personal identifying information in 
your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including 
your personal identifying information--may be made publicly available 
at any time. While you may ask us in your comment to withhold your 
personal identifying information from public review, we cannot 
guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary of 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2023-15276 Filed 7-18-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-06-P