2022-11985. 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, without revision, the Semiannual Report of Derivatives Activity (FR 2436; OMB No. 7100-0286).

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].

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Desk Officer for the Federal Reserve Board, 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 collections of information conducted or sponsored by the Board. Board-approved collections of information are incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. The OMB inventory, as well as copies of the PRA Submission, supporting statements, and approved collection of information instrument(s) are available at https://www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. These documents are also available on the Federal Reserve Board's public website at https://www.federalreserve.gov/​apps/​reportforms/​review.aspx or may be requested from the agency clearance officer, whose name appears above.

Final Approval Under OMB Delegated Authority of the Extension for Three Years, Without Revision, of the Following Information Collection

Collection title: Semiannual Report of Derivatives Activity.

Collection identifier: FR 2436.

OMB control number: 7100-0286.

Frequency: Semiannually.

Respondents: U.S. dealers of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives.

Estimated number of respondents: 8.

Estimated average hours per response: 236.

Estimated annual burden hours: 3,776.

General description of report: The FR 2436 collects derivatives market statistics from the eight largest U.S. dealers of OTC derivatives. Data are collected on the notional amounts and gross fair values of the volumes outstanding of broad categories of foreign exchange, interest rate, equity, commodity-linked, and credit default swap OTC derivatives contracts across a range of underlying currencies, interest rates, and equity markets.

The FR 2436 is the U.S. portion of a global data collection conducted by central banks. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), of which the Board is a member, compiles aggregate national data from each central bank to produce and publish global market statistics. The BIS survey has two parts: A Derivatives Outstanding survey and a Turnover (volume of transactions) survey. The FR 2436 fulfills the Derivatives Outstanding portion and complements the triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity (FR 3036; OMB No. 7100-0285), which collects data on derivatives turnover for the Turnover portion of the survey.

Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR 2436 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.^[1] 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.^[2] The Board and the FOMC use the information obtained from the FR 2436 to help fulfill these obligations. The FR 2436 is voluntary.

Aggregated FR 2436 data is compiled and forwarded to the BIS, which publishes global market statistics that are aggregates of national data from the Federal Reserve and other central banks. To the extent individual firm information collected on the FR 2436 constitutes nonpublic commercial or financial information, which is both customarily and actually treated as private by the respondent, it may be kept confidential under exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, which exempts “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.” ^[3] If it should be determined that any information collected on the FR 2436 must be released, other than in the aggregate in ways that will not reveal the amounts reported by any one institution, respondents will be notified.

Current actions: On November 23, 2021, the Board published a notice in the Federal Register (86 FR 66555) requesting public comment for 60 days on the extension, without revision, of the Semiannual Report of Derivatives Activity. The comment period for this notice expired on January 24, 2022. The Board did not receive any comments.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, May 31, 2022.

Michele Taylor Fennell,

Deputy Associate Secretary of the Board.

Footnotes

1.  12 U.S.C. 225a.

2.  12 U.S.C. 263.

3.  5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4).