2017-06301. Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery  

  • Start Preamble

    AGENCY:

    Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (”FinCEN”), Department of the Treasury.

    ACTION:

    Notice and request for comments.

    SUMMARY:

    As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, we invite comment on a proposed renewal, without change, to the generic clearance for the collection of qualitative feedback on agency service delivery. This request for comments is being made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act (“PRA”) of 1995, Public Law 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).

    DATES:

    Written comments are welcome and must be received on or before May 30, 2017.

    ADDRESSES:

    Written comments should be submitted to: Policy Division, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, P.O. Box 39, Vienna, VA 22183, “Attention: Comments on generic clearance for the collection of qualitative feedback on agency service delivery.” Comments also may be submitted by electronic mail to the following Internet address: regcomments@fincen.gov, again with a caption, in the body of the text, “Attention: Comments on generic clearance for the collection of qualitative feedback on agency service delivery.” Please submit by one method only.

    Start Further Info

    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

    The FinCEN Resource Center at 800-767-2825 or electronically at frc@fincen.gov.

    End Further Info End Preamble Start Supplemental Information

    SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

    Abstract: The Director of FinCEN is the delegated administrator of the Bank Secrecy Act (“Act”). The Act authorizes the Director to issue regulations to require all financial institutions defined as such in the Act to maintain certain records or file certain reports that have been determined to have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory investigations or proceedings, or in the conduct of intelligence or counter-intelligence activities, including analysis, to protect against international terrorism, and to implement anti-money laundering programs and compliance procedures.[1] FinCEN periodically surveys its stakeholders to collect qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with the Agency's commitment to improving service delivery.

    Title: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.

    Office of Management and Budget Control Number: 1506-0062.

    Abstract: FinCEN is renewing, without change, the bureau's capability to solicit feedback from the public with respect to timeliness, appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. Responses will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on the Agency's services will be unavailable.

    The Agency will only submit a collection for approval under this generic clearance if it meets the following conditions:

    • The collections are voluntary;
    • The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal government;
    • The collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
    • Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the near future;
    • Personally identifiable information is collected only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
    • Information gathered is intended to be used only internally for general service improvement and program management purposes and is not intended for release outside of the agency (if released, the agency must indicate the qualitative nature of the information);
    • Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
    • Information gathered will yield qualitative information; the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the population of study.

    Current Action: Renewal without change to an existing collection.

    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved information collection.

    Affected Public: Businesses and other for-profit institutions.

    Burden: Estimated Number of Respondents: 162,188.[2]

    Start Printed Page 15790

    Estimated Number of Responses: 1,000. (Avg. 250 per request).[3]

    Estimated Number of Hours: 10,000. (30 minutes per response).[4]

    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid control number assigned by the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”). Records required to be retained under the BSA must be retained for five years. Generally, information collected pursuant to the BSA is confidential but may be shared as provided by law with regulatory and law enforcement authorities.

    Request for Comments: Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval. All comments will become a matter of public record. Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (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; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance and purchase of services to provide information.

    Start Signature

    Jamal El Hindi,

    Deputy Director, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

    End Signature End Supplemental Information

    Footnotes

    1.  Public Law 91-508, as amended and codified at 12 U.S.C. 1829b, 12 U.S.C. 1951-1959 and 31 U.S.C. 5311-5332. Language expanding the scope of the BSA to intelligence or counter-intelligence activities to protect against international terrorism was added by section 358 of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (“USA PATRIOT”) Act of 2001, Public Law 107-56.

    Back to Citation

    2.  This number includes depository institutions (10,772), broker-dealers in securities (5,100), future commission merchants (101), introducing brokers in commodities (1,249), and open end mutual funds (1,660), and money services businesses (44,300), Residential Mortgage Lenders and Originators (31,000), Dealers in precious metals, precious stones, or jewels (20,000), insurance companies (1,200), operators of credit card systems (6), and entities required to report cash payments over $10,000 received in a trade or business, form 8300 (46,800), each as defined under the BSA.

    Back to Citation

    3.  FinCEN has submitted, on average, four requests per year each with 250 respondents.

    Back to Citation

    4.  The FinCEN surveys average 30 minutes to complete. OMB has allocated 10,000 hours for the three-year period covered by this notice.

    Back to Citation

    [FR Doc. 2017-06301 Filed 3-29-17; 8:45 am]

    BILLING CODE 4810-02-P

Document Information

Published:
03/30/2017
Department:
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Entry Type:
Notice
Action:
Notice and request for comments.
Document Number:
2017-06301
Dates:
Written comments are welcome and must be received on or before May 30, 2017.
Pages:
15789-15790 (2 pages)
PDF File:
2017-06301.Pdf