2022-17938. Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION:

60-Day notice of submission of information collection for approval from Office of Management and Budget.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA or the Agency) is seeking public comments concerning an information collection known as “Community Support Requirements,” which has been assigned control number 2590-0005 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due to expire on September 30, 2023.

DATES:

Interested persons may submit comments on or before October 18, 2022.

ADDRESSES:

Submit comments to FHFA, identified by “Proposed Collection; Comment Request: `Community Support Requirements, (No. 2022-N-11)' ” by any of the following methods:

• Agency website: www.fhfa.gov/​open-for-comment-or-input.

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email to FHFA at [e-mail] to ensure timely receipt by the Agency.

• Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of General Counsel, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed Collection; Comment Request: “Community Support Requirements, (No. 2022-N-11).”

We will post all public comments we receive without change, including any personal information you provide, such as your name and address, email address, and telephone number, on the FHFA website at http://www.fhfa.gov.

Copies of all comments received will be available for examination by the public through the electronic comment docket for this PRA Notice also located on the FHFA website.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mike Price, Senior Policy Analyst, by email at [e-mail], by telephone at [phone]; Tiffani Moore, Supervisory Policy Analyst, by email at [e-mail], by telephone at [phone]; or Angela Supervielle, Counsel, by email at [e-mail], by telephone at [phone] (these are not toll-free numbers). For TTY/TRS users with hearing and speech disabilities, dial 711 and ask to be connected to any of the contact numbers above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

1. Paperwork Reduction Act

Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. “Collection of information” is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 1320.3(c) to include agency collection of information from ten or more persons. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of title 44 requires Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice ^[1] in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, before submitting the collection of information to OMB for approval. FHFA's collection of information set forth in this document is titled the “Community Support Requirements” (assigned control number 2590-0005 by OMB). To comply with the PRA requirement, FHFA is publishing notice of a proposed three-year extension of this collection of information.

2. Community Support Requirements

The Federal Home Loan Bank System (System) consists of eleven regional Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and the Office of Finance, a joint office of the Banks that issues and services their debt securities. The Banks are wholesale financial institutions, organized under authority of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) to serve the public interest by enhancing the availability of residential housing finance and community lending credit through their member institutions and, to a limited extent, through eligible non-member “housing associates.” Each Bank is structured as a regional cooperative that is owned and controlled by member financial institutions located within its district, which are also its primary customers.

Section 10(g)(1) of the Bank Act requires the Director of FHFA to promulgate regulations establishing standards of community investment or service that Bank member institutions must meet in order to maintain access to long-term advances.^2 3 Section 10(g)(2) of the Bank Act requires that, in establishing these community support requirements for Bank members, FHFA take into account factors such as the member's performance under the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) ^[4] and record of lending to first- time homebuyers.^[5] FHFA's community support regulation, which establishes standards and review criteria for determining compliance with section 10(g) of the Bank Act, is set forth at 12 CFR part 1290.

Part 1290 requires that each Bank member subject to community support review submit to FHFA biennially a completed Community Support Statement (Form 060), which contains several short questions, the answers to which are used by FHFA to assess the responding member's compliance with the statutory and regulatory community support standards.^[6] Members are strongly encouraged to complete and submit Form 060 online, but may submit a version via email or fax if they cannot complete the submission online. In Part I of Form 060, a member that is subject to the CRA must record its most recent CRA rating and the year of that rating. Part II of Form 060 addresses a member's efforts to assist first-time homebuyers. A member may either record the number and dollar amount of mortgage loans made to first-time homebuyers in the previous or current calendar year (Part II.A), or indicate the types of programs or activities it has undertaken to assist first-time homebuyers by checking selections from a list (Part II.B), or do both. If a member has received a CRA rating of “Outstanding,” it need not complete Part II. A copy of the current Form 060 and related instructions appear at the end of this Notice.

Part 1290 also establishes the circumstances under which FHFA will restrict a member's access to long-term Bank advances and to the Bank Affordable Housing Programs (AHP), Community Investment Programs (CIP), and Community Investment Cash Advance (CICA) programs for failure to meet the community support requirements.^[7] Part 1290 permits Bank members whose access to long-term advances has been restricted to apply directly to FHFA to remove the restriction.⁸

B. Need for and Use of the Information Collection

FHFA uses the information collection contained in FHFA Form 060 to determine whether Bank members satisfy the statutory and regulatory community support requirements, and to ensure that, as required by statute and regulation, only Bank members that meet those requirements maintain continued access to long-term Bank advances and to the Bank AHP, CIP, and CICA programs.

The OMB control number for this information collection is 2590-0005, which is due to expire on September 30, 2023. The respondents are Bank member institutions.

C. Burden Estimate

FHFA has analyzed the two facets of this information collection to estimate the hour burdens that the collection will impose upon Bank members annually over the next three years. Based on that analysis, FHFA estimates that the total annual hour burden will be 2,094 hours. The method FHFA used to determine the annual hour burden for each facet of the information collection is explained in detail below.

1. Community Support Statements

There are currently about 6,600 Bank members. With exceptions, most Bank members must submit a Community Support Statement biennially. Non-depository community development financial institution (CDFI) Bank members are exempt from filing. At the end of 2021, there were 68 non-depository CDFI Bank members. Bank members who have been Bank members for less than one year as of March 31 of the year the submission is required are also exempt from filing. The Banks have added, on average, 118 new members per year over the last three years. FHFA arrives at a total estimate of about 6,414 respondents required to file each cycle (6,600 total members minus (68 non-depository CDFI members + 118 exempt new members biennially)). Under the Community Support biennial review cycle, members submit Community Support Statements every other year. Accordingly, FHFA estimates that the total number of respondents per year is about 3,207 (half of 6,414).

FHFA estimates that the average preparation and submission time for each Community Support Statement is 0.65 hours. The estimate for the total annual hour burden on Bank members in connection with the preparation and submission of Community Support Statements is, therefore, 2,085 hours (3,207 Statements × 0.65 hours).

2. Requests To Remove a Restriction on Access to Long-Term Advances

FHFA estimates that an annual average of 12 Bank members whose access to long-term advances and to AHP, CIP, and CICA programs has been restricted will prepare and submit requests to FHFA to remove those restrictions, and that the average preparation time for each request will be 0.75 hours. The estimate for the total annual hour burden on Bank members in connection with the preparation and submission of requests to remove a restriction on access to long-term advances is, therefore, 9 hours (12 requests × 0.75 hours).

D. Comment Request

FHFA requests written comments on the following: (1) whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical utility; (2) the accuracy of FHFA's estimates of the burdens of the collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; and (4) 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.

Shawn Bucholtz,

Chief Data Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Footnotes

1.  Following the close of this notice's 60-day comment period, FHFA will publish a second notice with a 30-day comment period as required by 44 U.S.C. 3507(b) and 5 CFR 1320.10(a).

2.  12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(1).

3.  For purposes of the community support requirements, a long-term advance is an advance with a term of maturity greater than one year. 12 CFR 1290.1 (definition of “long-term advance”).

4.   See12 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.

5.  12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(2).

6.   See12 CFR 1290.2. Non-depository community development financial institutions and institutions that have been Bank members for less than one year as of March 31 of the year the Form 060 is due are not required to submit Form 060.

7.   See12 CFR 1290.5(b), (e).

8.   See12 CFR 1290.5(d).