[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 151 (Tuesday, August 8, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53484-53486]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-16910]


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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[No. 2023-N-9]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION: Federal Home Loan Bank Capital Stock--60-day notice of 
submission of information collection for

[[Page 53485]]

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) is seeking 
public comment concerning an information collection known as ``Federal 
Home Loan Bank Capital Stock,'' which has been assigned control number 
2590-0002 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 
November 30, 2023.

DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before October 10, 
2023.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: `Federal Home Loan Bank Capital Stock, 
(No. 2023-N-9)' '' 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: ``Federal Home Loan 
Bank Capital Stock, (No. 2023-N-9).''
    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: Lindsay Spadoni, Assistant General 
Counsel, [email protected], (202) 649-3634 or Angela 
Supervielle, Senior Counsel, [email protected], (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. 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 requests or requirements that ten 
or more persons submit information to a third party.
    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 ``Federal Home Loan 
Bank Capital Stock'' (assigned control number 2590-0002 by OMB). To 
comply with the PRA requirement, FHFA is publishing notice of a 
proposed three-year extension of this collection of information and 
renewal of the control number, which is due to expire on November 30, 
2023.
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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).
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B. Background

    The Federal Home Loan Bank System consists of eleven regional 
Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and the Office of Finance (a joint 
office that issues and services the Banks' 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 certain eligible nonmembers. Each Bank is structured as 
a regional cooperative that is owned and controlled by member 
institutions located within its district, which are also its primary 
customers. An institution that is eligible for membership in a 
particular Bank must purchase and hold a prescribed minimum amount of 
the Bank's capital stock in order to become and remain a member of that 
Bank. With limited exceptions, only an institution that is a member of 
a Bank may obtain access to low cost secured loans, known as advances, 
or other products provided by that Bank.
    Section 6 of the Bank Act establishes capital requirements for the 
Banks and requires FHFA to issue regulations prescribing uniform 
capital standards applicable to all of the Banks.\2\ Section 6 also 
establishes parameters relating to the Banks' capital structures and 
requires that each Bank adopt a ``capital structure plan'' (capital 
plan) to establish, within those statutory parameters, its own capital 
structure and to establish requirements for, and govern transactions 
in, the Bank's capital stock.\3\ FHFA's regulations on Bank Capital 
Requirements, Capital Stock, and Capital Plans are located at 12 CFR 
part 1277.
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    \2\ See 12 U.S.C. 1426(a).
    \3\ See 12 U.S.C. 1426(b), (c).
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C. Need For and Use of the Information Collection

    Both the Bank Act and FHFA's regulations state that a Bank's 
capital plan must require its members to maintain a minimum investment 
in the Bank's capital stock, but both permit each Bank to determine for 
itself what that minimum investment is and how each member's required 
minimum investment is to be calculated.\4\ Although each Bank's capital 
plan establishes a slightly different method for calculating the 
required minimum stock investment for its members, each Bank's method 
is tied to some degree to both the level of assets held by the member 
institution (typically referred to as a ``membership stock purchase 
requirement'') and the amount of advances or other business engaged in 
between the member and the Bank (typically referred to as an 
``activity-based stock purchase requirement'').
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    \4\ See 12 U.S.C. 1426(c)(1); 12 CFR 1277.22, 1277.28(a).
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    A Bank must collect information from its members to determine the 
minimum capital stock investment each member is required to maintain at 
any point in time. Although the information needed to calculate a 
member's required minimum investment and the precise method through 
which it is collected differ somewhat from Bank to Bank, the Banks 
typically collect two types of information. First, in order to 
calculate and monitor compliance with its membership stock purchase 
requirement, a Bank typically requires each member to provide and/or 
confirm an annual report on the amount and types of assets held by that 
institution. Second, each time a Bank engages in a business transaction 
with a member, the Bank typically confirms with the member the amount 
of additional Bank capital stock, if any, the member must acquire in 
order to satisfy the Bank's activity-based stock purchase requirement 
and the method through which the member will acquire that stock.
    The OMB number for the information collection is 2590-0002, which 
is due to

[[Page 53486]]

expire on November 30, 2023. The likely respondents include current and 
former Bank members and institutions applying for Bank membership.

D. Burden Estimate

    FHFA has analyzed the time burden imposed on respondents by the two 
collections under this control number and estimates that the average 
total annual hour burden imposed on all respondents over the next three 
years will be 20,245 hours. The estimate for each collection was 
calculated as follows:

1. Membership Stock Purchase Requirement Submissions

    FHFA estimates that the average annual number of current and former 
members and applicants for membership required to report information 
needed to calculate a membership stock purchase requirement will be 
6,550, and that each institution will submit one report per year, 
resulting in an estimated total of 6,550 submissions annually. The 
estimate for the average time required to prepare, review, and submit 
each report is 0.7 hours. Accordingly, the estimate for the annual hour 
burden associated with membership stock purchase requirement 
submissions is (6,550 reports x 0.7 hours per report) = 4,585 hours.

2. Activity-Based Stock Purchase Requirement Submissions

    FHFA estimates that the average number of daily transactions 
between Banks and members that will require the exchange of information 
to confirm the member's activity-based stock purchase requirement will 
be 300, and that there will be an average of 261 working days per year, 
resulting in an estimated 78,300 submissions annually. The estimate for 
the average preparation time per submission is 0.2 hours. Accordingly, 
the estimate for the annual hour burden associated with activity-based 
stock purchase requirement submissions is (78,300 submissions x 0.2 
hours per submission) = 15,660 hours.

E. 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.

Shawn Bucholtz,
Chief Data Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
[FR Doc. 2023-16910 Filed 8-7-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P