[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 220 (Wednesday, November 15, 1995)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 57335-57337]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-28229]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of Economic Analysis
15 CFR Part 801
[Docket No. 95-0710174-5248-02]
RIN 0691-AA26
International Services Surveys: BE-82 Annual Survey of Financial
Services Transactions Between U.S. Financial Services Providers and
Unaffiliated Foreign Persons
AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce.
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: These final rules institute a new international services
survey, the BE-82, Annual Survey of Financial Services Transactions
Between U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign
Persons, to be conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S.
Department of Commerce. The survey will update information collected on
the quinquennial BE-80, Benchmark Survey of Financial Services
Transactions Between U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated
Foreign Persons, which was first conducted for 1994. Together, the two
surveys will produce continuous annual time series of data on financial
services that are out of scope of other international services surveys.
The information is needed, among other purposes, to support trade
policy initiatives, including trade negotiations, on financial services
and to compile the U.S. balance of payments and national income and
product accounts.
The survey will be conducted under the International Investment and
Trade in Services Survey Act and the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness
Act of 1988. The first survey will cover 1995.
DATES: These rules will be effective December 15, 1995.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
[[Page 57336]]
Betty L. Barker, Chief, International Investment Division (BE-50),
Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington,
DC 20230; phone (202) 606-9805.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the August 8, 1995 Federal Register,
volume 60, No. 152, 60 FR 40336, BEA published a notice of proposed
rulemaking setting forth reporting requirements for a new survey, the
BE-82, Annual Survey of Financial Services Transactions Between U.S.
Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign Persons. No
comments on the proposed rules were received. As a result, the final
rules are the same as the proposed rules.
These final rules amend existing 15 CFR 801.9 to implement the new
survey. The survey will be conducted by BEA under the International
Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act (Pub. L. 94-472, 90 Stat.
2059, 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108, as amended) and the Omnibus Trade and
Competitiveness Act of 1988 (Pub. L. 100-418, 15 U.S.C. 4908). Section
3103(a) of the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey
Act provides that ``The President shall, to the extent he deems
necessary and feasible--* * * (1) conduct a regular data collection
program to secure current information * * * related to international
investment and trade in services * * * ; and (5) publish for the use of
the general public and United States Government agencies periodic,
regular, and comprehensive statistical information collected pursuant
to this subsection * * * '' In Section 3 of Executive Order 11961, as
amended by Executive Order 12518, the President delegated the authority
under the Act as concerns international trade in services to the
Secretary of Commerce, who has redelegated it to BEA. The Omnibus Trade
and Competitiveness Act of 1988 directs that ``The Secretary (of
Commerce) shall ensure that * * * there is included in the Data Bank
information on service sector activity that is as complete and timely
as information on economic activity in the merchandise sector. The
Secretary shall undertake a new benchmark survey of services
transactions, including transactions with respect to * * * banking
services; (and) brokerage services. * * * The Secretary shall (also)
provide, not less than once a year, comprehensive information on the
service sector of the economy.''
The major purposes of the survey are to provide the information on
financial services needed in monitoring U.S. services trade, analyzing
its effects on the U.S. economy, formulating U.S. international trade
policy, supporting bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations,
compiling the U.S. balance of payments and national income and product
accounts, developing U.S. international price indexes for services,
assessing U.S. competitiveness in international trade in services, and
improving the ability of U.S. businesses to identify and evaluate
foreign market opportunities.
The BE-82 survey will be conducted in years in which the BE-80
benchmark survey, or census, is not conducted; the first BE-80 survey
was for 1994 and the first BE-82 survey will be for 1995. The BE-82
survey will update the data provided on the universe of financial
services transactions between U.S. financial services providers and
unaffiliated foreign persons obtained in the BE-80 survey. It covers
the same types of financial services as the BE-80 survey, but the
exemption level below which reporting is not required is $5 million,
compared with $1 million in the BE-80 survey. Thus, reporting in the
BE-82 is required from U.S. financial services providers who have sales
to or purchases from unaffiliated foreign persons in all covered
financial services combined in excess of $5 million during the
reporting year. Those financial services providers meeting this
criteria must apply data on the amount of their sales or purchases of
each covered type of service, disaggregated by country. U.S. financial
services providers that have covered transactions of $5 million or less
during the reporting year are asked to provide, on a voluntary basis,
estimates only of their total sales or purchases of each type of
financial service.
Executive Order 12612
These final rules do not contain policies with Federalism
implications sufficient to warrant preparation of a Federalism
assessment under E.O. 12612.
Executive Order 12866
These final rules have been determined to be not sufficient for
purposes of E.O. 12866.
Paperwork Reduction Act
The collection of information requirement in these final rules has
been approved by OMB (OMB No. 0608-0063).
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is
estimated to vary from 4 to 150 hours, with an overall average burden
of 7.5 hours. This includes time for reviewing the instructions,
searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data
needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.
Comments from the public regarding the burden estimate or any other
aspect of this collection of information should be addressed to:
Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BE-1), U.S. Department of
Commerce, Washington, DC 20230; and to the Office of Management and
Budget, Washington, DC 20503, Attention: Desk Officer for the
Department of Commerce.
Regulatory Flexibility Act
The Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulation,
Department of Commerce, has certified to the Chief Counsel for
Advocacy, Small Business Administration, under the provisions of the
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 605(b)), that these final rules
will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of
small entities. The exemption level for the survey excludes most small
businesses from mandatory reporting. Reporting is required only if
total sales or total purchases transactions in financial services with
unaffiliated foreign persons by U.S. financial services providers
exceed $5 million during the year. In addition, international business
tends to be conducted mainly by the larger companies in a given
industry; in the financial services industry, this is particularly
true, because of the high degree of consolidation that has occurred in
that industry in the United States during the past several years. In
any event, small businesses tend to have specialized operations and
activities, so those with reportable transactions will likely not have
significant amounts of data to report; therefore, the burden on them
will be relatively small.
List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 801
Balance of payments, Economic statistics, Foreign trade, Penalties,
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Dated: October 4, 1995.
J. Steven Landefeld,
Acting Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
For the reasons set forth in the preamble, BEA amends 15 CFR part
801, as follows:
PART 801--[AMENDED]
1. The authority citation for 15 CFR part 801 is revised to read as
follows:
Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 15 U.S.C. 4908; 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108;
E.O. 11961, 3 CFR, 1977 Comp., p. 86 as amended by E.O. 12013, 3
CFR, 1977 Comp., p. 147, E.O. 12318, 3 CFR,
[[Page 57337]]
1981 Comp., p. 173, and E.O. 12518, 3 CFR, 1985 Comp., p. 348.
2. Section 801.9 is amended by adding paragraph (b)(7) to read as
follows:
Sec. 801.9 Reports required.
* * * * *
(b) Annual surveys. * * *
(7) BE-82, Annual Survey of Financial Services Transactions Between
U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign Persons:
(i) A BE-82, Annual Survey of Financial Services Transactions
Between U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign
Persons, will be conducted covering companies' 1995 fiscal year and
every year thereafter except when a BE-80, Benchmark Survey of
Financial Services Transactions Between U.S. Financial Services
Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign Persons, is conducted (see
Sec. 801.11). All legal authorities, provisions, definitions, and
requirements contained in Sec. 801.1 through Sec. 801.8 are applicable
to this survey. Additional rules and regulations for the BE-82 survey
are given in paragraphs (b)(7)(i)(A) through (D) of this section. More
detailed instructions are given on the report form itself.
(A) Who must report.--(1) Mandatory reporting. Reports are required
from each U.S. person who is a financial services provider or
intermediary, or whose consolidated U.S. enterprise includes a
separately organized subsidiary or part that is a financial services
provider or intermediary, and who had transactions (either sales or
purchases) directly with unaffiliated foreign persons in all financial
services combined in excess of $5,000,000 during its fiscal year
covered by the survey. The $5,000,000 threshold should be applied to
financial services transactions with unaffiliated foreign persons by
all parts of the consolidated U.S. enterprise combined that are
financial services providers or intermediaries. Because the $5,000,000
threshold applies separately to sales and purchases, the mandatory
reporting requirement may apply only to sales, only to purchases, or to
both sales and purchases.
(i) The determination of whether a U.S. financial services provider
or intermediary is subject to this mandatory reporting requirement may
be judgmental, that is, based on the judgment of knowledgeable persons
in a company who can identify reportable transactions on a recall
basis, with a reasonable degree of certainty, without conducting a
detailed manual records search.
(ii) Reporters who file pursuant to this mandatory reporting
requirement must provide data on total sales and/or purchases of each
of the covered types of financial services transactions and must
disaggregate the totals by country.
(2) Voluntary reporting. If, during the fiscal year covered, sales
or purchases of financial services by a firm that is a financial
services provider or intermediary, or by a firm's subsidiaries or parts
combined that are financial services providers or intermediaries, are
$5,000,000 or less, the U.S. person is requested to provide an estimate
of the total for each type of service. Provision of this information is
voluntary. Because the $5,000,000 threshold applies separately to sales
and purchases, this voluntary reporting option may apply only to sales,
only to purchases, or to both sales and purchases.
(B) BE-82 definition of financial services provider. The definition
of a financial services provider used for this survey is the same as
that used for the BE-80 benchmark survey, as defined in Sec. 801.11(b).
(C) Covered types of services. The BE-82 survey covers the same
types of financial services transactions that are covered by the BE-80
benchmark survey, as listed in Sec. 801.11(c).
(D) What to file. (1) The BE-82 survey consists of Forms BE-82(A)
and BE-82(B). Before completing a Form BE-82(B), a consolidated U.S.
enterprise (including the top parent and all of its subsidiaries and
parts combined) must complete Form BE-82(A) to determine its reporting
status. If the enterprise is subject to the mandatory reporting
requirement, or if it is exempt from the mandatory reporting
requirement but chooses to report data voluntarily, either a separate
Form BE-82(B) may be filed for each separately organized financial
services subsidiary or part of the consolidated U.S. enterprise, or a
single BE-82(B) may be filed, representing the sum of covered
transactions by all financial services subsidiaries or parts of the
enterprise combined.
(2) Reporters that receive the BE-82 survey from BEA, but that are
not reporting data in either the mandatory or voluntary section of any
Form BE-82(B), must return the Exemption Claim, attached to Form BE-
82(A), to BEA.
(ii) [Reserved]
[FR Doc. 95-28229 Filed 11-14-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-EA-M
