[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 249 (Wednesday, December 28, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 95592-95593]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-31389]
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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY
[No. 2016-N-14]
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.
ACTION: 30-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, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA or the Agency) is
seeking public comments concerning the 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)
(the collection was previously known as ``Capital Requirements for the
Federal Home Loan Banks''). 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 December 31, 2016.
DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before January 27,
2017.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer
for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 20503, Fax:
(202) 395-3047, Email: OIRA_submission@omb.eop.gov. Please also submit
comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed Collection; Comment Request:
`Federal Home Loan Bank Capital Stock (No. 2016-N-14)' '' by any of the
following methods:
Agency Web site: 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 RegComments@fhfa.gov to ensure timely receipt by the agency.
Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Eighth
Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION:
Proposed Collection; Comment Request: ``Federal Home Loan Bank Capital
Stock (No. 2016-N-14).''
U.S. Mail, United Parcel Service, Federal Express, or
Other Mail Service: The mailing address for comments is: Alfred M.
Pollard, General Counsel, Attention: Comments/2016-N-14, Federal
Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW., Eighth Floor,
Washington, DC 20219.
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 Web site at
http://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will
be available for examination by the public on business days between the
hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., at the Federal Housing Finance Agency,
Eighth Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20219. To make an
appointment to inspect comments, please call the Office of General
Counsel at (202) 649-3804.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan F. Curtis, Financial Analyst,
Division of Federal Home Loan Bank Regulation, by email at
Jonathan.Curtis@fhfa.gov or by telephone at (202) 649-3321; or Eric
Raudenbush, Associate General Counsel, by email at
Eric.Raudenbush@fhfa.gov or by telephone at (202) 649-3084 (these are
not toll-free numbers), Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh
Street SW., Washington, DC 20219. The Telecommunications Device for the
Hearing Impaired is (800) 877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Need For and Use of the Information Collection
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
[[Page 95593]]
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.\1\ 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.\2\ FHFA has designated 12 CFR part 1277
as the location for its regulations on Bank Capital Requirements,
Capital Stock, and Capital Plans. Part 1277 currently includes
regulations establishing requirements for the Banks' capital stock
(Subpart C; Sec. Sec. 1277.20-1277.27) and for the Banks' capital
plans (Subpart D; Sec. Sec. 1277.28-1277.29). Regulations governing
the Banks' capital requirements are currently located at 12 CFR parts
930 and 932 (in the regulations of the former Federal Housing Finance
Board), but will be moved into part 1277 in the near future.
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\1\ See 12 U.S.C. 1426(a).
\2\ See 12 U.S.C. 1426(b), (c).
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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.\3\ 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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\3\ 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 expire on December 31, 2016. The likely respondents include
current and former Bank members and institutions applying for Bank
membership.
B. 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 15,230 hours. The estimate for each collection was
calculated as follows:
I. 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
7,320, and that each institution will submit one report per year,
resulting in an estimated total of 7,320 submissions annually. The
estimate for the average time required to prepare, review, and submit
each report is 0.5 hours. Accordingly, the estimate for the annual hour
burden associated with membership stock purchase requirement
submissions is (7,320 reports x 0.5 hours per report) = 3,660 hours.
II. 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 341, and that there will be an average of 261 working days per year,
resulting in an estimated 89,001 submissions annually. The estimate for
the average preparation time per submission is 0.13 hours. Accordingly,
the estimate for the annual hour burden associated with activity-based
stock purchase requirement submissions is (89,001 submissions x 0.13
hours per submission) = 11,570 hours.
C. Comment Request
In accordance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(d), FHFA
published an initial notice requesting comments regarding this
information collection in the Federal Register on October 7, 2016.\4\
The 60 day comment period closed on December 6, 2016. No comments were
received. However, during the pendency of the comment period, FHFA
consulted with several of the Banks regarding the burden estimates for
this information collection. As a result of the Banks' input, FHFA has
made some revisions to the burden estimates, so that those appearing
above differ from those that appeared in the 60-day notice.
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\4\ See 81 FR 69819 (Oct. 7, 2016).
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In accordance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.10(a), FHFA is
publishing this second notice to request comments regarding 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 members
and project sponsors, including through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information technology. Comments should be
submitted in writing to both OMB and FHFA as instructed above in the
Comments section.
Dated: December 22, 2016.
Kevin Winkler,
Chief Information Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
[FR Doc. 2016-31389 Filed 12-27-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P