[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 251 (Monday, December 30, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68814-68817]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-33064]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
AGENCIES: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Treasury;
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board); and Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
ACTION: Notice and request for comment.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), the OCC, the Board, and the FDIC
(the ``agencies'') may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is
not required to respond to, an information collection that has been
extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless
it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
control number. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
(FFIEC), of which the agencies are members, has recently approved the
agencies' publication for public comment of proposed revisions to the
Foreign Branch Report of Condition (Foreign Branch Report), which is
currently an approved collection of information. At the end of the
comment period, the comments and recommendations received will be
analyzed to determine the extent to which the FFIEC should modify the
[[Page 68815]]
proposed revisions prior to giving its final approval. The agencies
will then submit the revisions to OMB for review and approval. Comments
are invited on: (a) whether the proposed revisions to the following
collection of information are necessary for the proper performance of
the agencies' functions, including whether the information has
practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agencies' estimate of the
burden of the information collection as it is proposed to be revised,
including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c)
ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of information collection
on respondents, including through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information technology; and (e) estimates
of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and
purchase of services to provide information.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before February 28, 1997.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments to
any or all of the agencies. All comments, which should refer to the OMB
control number(s), will be shared among the agencies.
OCC: Written comments should be submitted to the Communications
Division, Third Floor, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 250 E
Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20219; Attention: Paperwork Docket No.
1557-0099 [FAX number (202) 874-5274; Internet address:
regs.comments@occ.treas.gov]. Comments will be available for inspection
and photocopying at that address.
Board: Written comments should be addressed to Mr. William W.
Wiles, Secretary, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,
20th and C Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20551, or delivered to the
Board's mail room between 8:45 a.m. and 5:15 p.m., and to the security
control room outside of those hours. Both the mail room and the
security control room are accessible from the courtyard entrance on
20th Street between Constitution Avenue and C Street, N.W. Comments
received may be inspected in room M-P-500 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00
p.m., except as provided in section 261.8 of the Board's Rules
Regarding Availability of Information, 12 CFR 261.8(a).
FDIC: Written comments should be addressed to the Office of the
Executive Secretary, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 550 17th
Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20429. Comments may be hand-delivered to
Room F-402, 1776 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20429, on business
days between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Comments may be sent through
facsimile to: (202) 898-3838 or by the Internet to: comments@fdic.gov.
Comments will be available for inspection at the FDIC Public
Information Center, room 100, 801 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.,
between 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on business days.
A copy of the comments may also be submitted to the OMB desk
officer for the agencies: Alexander T. Hunt, Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive
Office Building, Room 3208, Washington, D.C. 20503.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A copy of the proposed revisions to
the collection of information may be requested from the agency
clearance officers whose names appear below.
OCC: Jessie Gates, OCC Clearance Officer, or Dionne Walsh, (202)
874-5090, Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division, Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency, 250 E Street, S.W., Washington, D.C.
20219.
Board: Mary M. McLaughlin, Board Clearance Officer (202-452-3829),
Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System, 20th and C Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20551. For
the hearing impaired only, Telecommunications Device for the Deaf
(TDD), Dorothea Thompson, (202-452-3544), Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC 20551.
FDIC: Steven F. Hanft, FDIC Clearance Officer, (202) 898-3907,
Office of the Executive Secretary, Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation, 550 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20429.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Proposal to Revise the Following Currently Approved Collection of
Information
Title: Foreign Branch Report of Condition.
Form Number: FFIEC 030.
Frequency of Response: Annually, and quarterly for significant
branches.
Affected Public: Business or other for profit.
For OCC
OMB Number: 1557-0099.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 234 annual respondents; 59
quarterly respondents.
Estimated Time per Response: 3.9 burden hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 1833 burden hours.
For Board
OMB Number: 7100-0071.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 100 annual respondents; 33
quarterly respondents.
Estimated Time per Response: 3.9 burden hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 904.80 burden hours.
For FDIC
OMB Number: 3064-0011.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 41 annual respondents; 1 quarterly
respondent.
Estimated Time per Response: 3.9 burden hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 175.50 burden hours.
General Description of Report: This information collection is
mandatory: 12 U.S.C. 321, 324, and 602 (Board); 12 U.S.C. 602 (OCC);
and 12 U.S.C. 1828 (FDIC). This information collection is given
confidential treatment (5 U.S.C. 552 (b)(8)). Small businesses (that
is, small banks) are not affected.
Abstract: This report contains asset and liability information for
foreign branches of insured U.S. commercial banks and is required for
regulatory and supervisory purposes. The information is used to analyze
the foreign operations of U.S. commercial banks. All foreign branches
of U.S. banks regardless of charter type file this report with the
appropriate Federal Reserve District Bank. The Federal Reserve collects
this information on behalf of the U.S. bank's primary federal bank
regulatory agency.
Current Actions: New items would be added to the Foreign Branch
Report to enhance the agencies' ability to monitor asset quality and
the usage of off-balance sheet transactions and to conform the
reporting of securities to generally accepted accounting principles
(GAAP). The Foreign Branch Report's instructions reference the
reporting standards used in the Consolidated Reports of Condition and
Income (FFIEC 031; OMB No. 7100-0036 for Board; 3064-0052 for FDIC;
1557-0081 for OCC). The FFIEC 031 instructions are being revised by
eliminating instructions that differ from GAAP, effective with the
March 1997 report date. Thus, the Foreign Branch Report's instructions
would conform to GAAP by reference to the FFIEC 031 instructions. In
addition, the criteria used to determine whether a respondent files
this report on a quarterly basis would be revised.
Type of Review: Revision.
The FFIEC has approved the agencies' publication of this notice's
proposed revisions to the Foreign Branch Report.
[[Page 68816]]
Implementation of these revisions would take place as of the June 30,
1997, report date for quarterly respondents, and as of the December 31,
1997, report date for annual respondents. As is customary for Foreign
Branch Report changes, quarterly respondents are advised that, for the
June 30, 1997, report date, reasonable estimates may be provided for
any new or revised item for which the requested information is not
readily available. The specific wording of the captions for the new or
revised items discussed below should be regarded as preliminary.
Asset Quality
The Foreign Branch Report currently does not collect information on
past due and nonaccrual loans and lease financing receivables. For more
than ten years, such information has been collected for the
consolidated banking entity as a whole on the FFIEC 031, Consolidated
Reports of Condition and Income. The FFIEC 031 form's disclosures have
proven to be a valuable source of information about the asset quality
of the consolidated banking entity's loan and lease portfolio. The
disclosure of similar information on the Foreign Branch Report would
identify potential asset quality problems in specific foreign branch
operations sooner than would otherwise be possible and improve the
agencies' ability to develop appropriate supervisory measures,
including the agencies' targeting of examination resources to
particular foreign branches.
Three new items would be added to collect information on past due
and nonaccrual loans and leases of the foreign branch in a manner
consistent with the reporting of such data in the FFIEC 031 form. The
items would be ``Past due 30 through 89 days and still accruing,''
``Past due 90 days or more and still accruing,'' and ``Nonaccrual.''
The collection would cover all loans and leases reported by the branch.
Off-Balance-Sheet Transactions
The Foreign Branch Report currently includes a minimal number of
items that disclose a branch's involvement in off-balance-sheet
transactions. The agencies propose to expand the number of disclosures
on off-balance-sheet transactions to include information on the
notional value of exchange swaps, the notional value of other swaps,
the amount of unused securities underwriting commitments, the amount of
unused commitments on loans and all other lines of credit, and the
aggregate amount of all other off-balance-sheet liabilities. The FFIEC
031 form collects similar information on unused commitments and off-
balance-sheet transactions; however, the FFIEC 031 form collects more
detailed breakdowns for commitments and additional breakdowns for the
underlying risk exposures related to swaps. The collection of
information on off-balance-sheet activities in the Foreign Branch
Report, although less extensive than the off-balance-sheet information
collected from the consolidated banking entity on the FFIEC 031 form,
would improve the agencies' overall ability to monitor risk exposures
resulting from a foreign branch's involvement in off-balance-sheet
activities.
In addition, a new item for trading liabilities, including amounts
resulting from derivative transactions, would be added in a manner
consistent with the reporting of such data in the FFIEC 031 form. The
new item would improve the agencies' ability to monitor foreign branch
trading operations involving third parties and would be a complement to
the existing item for assets held in trading accounts (which is being
recaptioned as trading assets to conform this item to the FFIEC 031
form caption).
Securities
The reporting for branch holdings of debt and equity securities
would be revised to be consistent with the three GAAP categories as
prescribed by Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 115,
``Accounting for Certain Investments in Debt and Equity Securities''
(FASB 115). FASB 115 established three categories of securities: held-
to-maturity securities, available-for-sale securities, and trading
securities, each of which has its own basis of accounting. FASB 115
permits an entity to include debt securities in the held-to-maturity
category only if it has the positive intent and ability to hold those
debt securities to maturity. Under FASB 115, the accounting basis of
held-to-maturity debt securities is amortized cost. Securities in the
available-for-sale category under FASB 115 are those debt securities
not acquired for trading purposes for which an entity does not have the
positive intent and ability to hold to maturity and those equity
securities with readily determinable fair values that it does not
intend to trade as part of its trading account. Under FASB 115,
available-for-sale securities are reported at fair value on the
balance-sheet. Trading securities are those debt and equity securities
that an entity buys and holds principally for the purpose of selling in
the near term.
The two existing breakdowns for securities on the Foreign Branch
Report would be amended to collect information on debt and equity
securities in a manner consistent with the reporting of such data in
the FFIEC 031 form which already conforms to FASB 115. Items 4.a. and
4.b. on the Foreign Branch Report would be revised into items for
``Held-to-maturity securities'' and ``Available-for-sale securities.''
Trading securities would continue to be reported on the Foreign Branch
Report in item 5, Trading Assets.
Quarterly Reporting
The Foreign Branch Report is currently filed on a quarterly basis
by significant branches, that is, branches with either: (1) total
assets of $2 billion or more, or (2) commitments to purchase foreign
currencies and U.S. dollar exchange (spot, forwards, and futures) of $5
billion or more. The agencies propose to revise the scope of off-
balance-sheet transactions used in the quarterly filing criteria to
include all those off-balance-sheet derivatives proposed herein to be
covered by the Foreign Branch Report. Thus, the Foreign Branch Report
would be filed quarterly by significant branches with either: (1) total
assets of $2 billion or more, or (2) commitments to purchase foreign
currencies and U.S. dollar exchange (spot, forwards, and futures), all
other futures and forwards contracts, options contracts, and the
notional value of interest rate swaps, exchange swaps and other swaps
of $5 billion or more. The revised criteria are consistent with the
expanded disclosures for off-balance-sheet transactions that are part
of this proposed revision.
Request for Comment
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be shared among
the agencies and will be summarized or included in the agencies'
requests for OMB approval. All comments will become a matter of public
record. Written comments should address the accuracy of the burden
estimates and ways to minimize burden including the use of automated
collection techniques or the use of other forms of information
technology as well as other relevant aspects of the information
collection request.
[[Page 68817]]
Dated: December 20, 1996.
Karen Solomon,
Director, Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division, Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, December 23,
1996.
William W. Wiles,
Secretary of the Board.
Dated at Washington, D.C., this 16th day of December, 1996.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Steven F. Hanft,
Assistant Executive Secretary (Regulatory Analysis).
[FR Doc. 96-33064 Filed 12-27-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-33-P; 6210-01-P; 6714-01-P
