2019-08779. Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board Approval Under Delegated Authority and Submission to OMB

AGENCY:

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

SUMMARY:

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is adopting a proposal to extend for three years, with revision, the Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity (FR 3036; OMB No. 7100-0285).

DATES:

The revisions are applicable for the April Turnover survey.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Federal Reserve Board Clearance Officer—Nuha Elmaghrabi—Office of the Chief Data Officer, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC, 20551 [phone]. Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) users may contact [phone], Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC 20551.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Desk Officer—Shagufta Ahmed—Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, 725 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

On June 15, 1984, OMB delegated to the Board authority under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) to approve and assign OMB control numbers to collection of information requests and requirements conducted or sponsored by the Board. Board-approved collections of information are incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. Copies of the PRA submission, supporting statements and approved collection of information instrument(s) are placed into OMB's public docket files. The Board 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 OMB control number.

Final Approval Under OMB Delegated Authority of the Extension for Three Years With Revision of the Following Information Collection

Report title: Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity.

Agency form number: FR 3036.

OMB control number: 7100-0285.

Effective Date: April 2019.

Frequency: Triennially.

Respondents: Financial institutions that serve as intermediaries in the wholesale foreign exchange and derivatives market.

Estimated number of respondents: 21.

Estimated average hours per response: 55.

Estimated annual burden hours: 1,155.

General description of report: The survey is a comprehensive source of global information on the volume of foreign exchange and derivatives trading and, as such, is useful to the Federal Reserve System and other government agencies in understanding market developments and trends and for conducting Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury foreign exchange operations. Survey data are also used by market participants to gain a perspective on the market that is not available from data at the firm level. Academics and the general public also use the survey's data for research and analysis.

Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR 3036 is authorized pursuant to sections 2A and 12A of the Federal Reserve Act (FRA). Section 2A of the FRA requires that the Board and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) maintain long-run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy's long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates (12 U.S.C. 225a). Under section 12A of the FRA, the FOMC is required to implement regulations relating to the open market operations conducted by Federal Reserve Banks. Those transactions must be governed with a view to accommodating commerce and business and with regard to their bearing upon the general credit situation of the country (12 U.S.C. 263). The Board and the FOMC use the information obtained from the FR 3036 to help fulfill these obligations.

The FR 3036 is a voluntary survey. Because the release of this information would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of the entity from whom the information was obtained, the information collected on the FR 3036 may be granted confidential treatment under exemption (b)(4) of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4), which protects from disclosure “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.”

Current actions: On February 7, 2019, the Board published a notice in the Federal Register (84 FR 2506) requesting public comment for 60 days on the extension, with revision, of the Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity. The comment period for this notice expired on April 8, 2019. The Board did not receive any comments. The revisions will be implemented as proposed.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, April 25, 2019.

Michele Taylor Fennell,

Assistant Secretary of the Board.