Proposed Collection; Comment Request
| Published date | 21 May 2021 |
| Citation | 86 FR 27604 |
| Record Number | 2021-10771 |
| Section | Notices |
| Court | Federal Housing Finance Agency |
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 97 (Friday, May 21, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 97 (Friday, May 21, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27604-27622]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-10771]
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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY
[No. 2021-N-6]
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.
ACTION: Federal Home Loan Bank Directors--30-day notice of submission
of information collection for approval from Office of Management and
Budget.
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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 ``Federal Home Loan Bank Directors,'' which has been assigned
control number 2590-0006 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 expired
on February 28, 2021.
DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before June 21,
2021.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer
for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 20503, Fax:
(202) 395-3047, Email: [email protected]. Please also submit
comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed Collection; Comment Request:
`Federal Home Loan Bank Directors, (No. 2021-N-6)' '' 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 [email protected] to ensure timely receipt by the agency.
Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Eighth
Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed
Collection; Comment Request: ``Federal Home Loan Bank Directors, (No.
2021-N-6).''
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. In addition, 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: Vickie Olafson, Assistant General
Counsel, [email protected], (202) 649-3025; or Angela
Supervielle, Counsel, [email protected], (202) 649-3973
(these are not toll-free numbers); Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219. The Telecommunications Device
for the Deaf is (800) 877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Need for and Use of the Information Collection
Section 7 of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) vests the
management of each Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank) in its board of
directors.\1\ As required by section 7, each Bank's board comprises two
types of directors: (1) Member directors, who are drawn from the
officers and directors of member institutions located in the Bank's
district and who are elected to represent members in a particular state
in that district; and (2) independent directors, who are unaffiliated
with any
[[Page 27605]]
of the Bank's member institutions, but who reside in the Bank's
district and are elected on an at-large basis.\2\ Both types of
directors serve four-year terms, which are staggered so that
approximately one-quarter of a Bank's total directorships are up for
election every year.\3\ Section 7 and FHFA's implementing regulation,
codified at 12 CFR part 1261, establish the eligibility requirements
for both types of Bank directors and the professional qualifications
for independent directors, and set forth the procedures for their
election.
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\1\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(1).
\2\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(4), (b), and (d).
\3\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(d).
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Part 1261 requires that each Bank administer its own annual
director election process. As part of this process, a Bank must require
each nominee for both types of directorship, including any incumbent
that may be a candidate for re-election, to complete and return to the
Bank a form that solicits information about the candidate's statutory
eligibility to serve and, in the case of independent director
candidates, about his or her professional qualifications for the
directorship being sought.\4\ Specifically, member director candidates
are required to complete the Federal Home Loan Bank Member Director
Eligibility Certification Form (Member Director Eligibility
Certification Form), while independent director candidates must
complete the Federal Home Loan Bank Independent Director Application
Form (Independent Director Application Form). Each Bank must also
require all of its incumbent directors to certify annually that they
continue to meet all eligibility requirements.\5\ Member directors do
this by completing the Member Director Eligibility Certification Form
again every year, while independent directors complete the abbreviated
Federal Home Loan Bank Independent Director Annual Certification Form
(Independent Director Annual Certification Form) to certify their
ongoing eligibility.
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\4\ See 12 CFR 1261.7(c) and (f); 12 CFR 1261.14(b).
\5\ See 12 CFR 1261.12.
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The Banks use the information collection contained in the
Independent Director Application Form and part 1261 to determine
whether individuals who wish to stand for election or re-election as
independent directors satisfy the statutory eligibility requirements
and possess the professional qualifications required under the statute
and regulations. Only individuals meeting those requirements and
qualifications may serve as an independent director.\6\ On an annual
basis, the Banks use the information collection contained in the
Independent Director Annual Certification Form and part 1261 to
determine whether their incumbent independent directors continue to
meet the statutory eligibility requirements. The Banks use the
information collection contained in the Member Director Eligibility
Certification Form and part 1261 to determine whether individuals who
wish to stand for election or re-election as member directors satisfy
the statutory eligibility requirements. Only individuals meeting these
requirements may serve as a member director.\7\ On an annual basis, the
Banks also use the information collection contained in the Member
Director Eligibility Certification Form and part 1261 to determine
whether their incumbent member directors continue to meet the statutory
eligibility requirements.
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\6\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(3).
\7\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(3) and (b)(1).
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The OMB control number for this information collection is 2590-
0006. The current clearance for the information collection expired on
February 28, 2021. The likely respondents are individuals who are
prospective and incumbent Bank directors.
B. Revisions to the Bank Director Forms
In advance of the 2021 Bank director election cycle, FHFA has
revised each of the three Bank Director Application and Certification
forms, all of which have existed in substantially their current form
since the current statutory requirements for Bank directors were
adopted in 2008.
The Independent Director Application Form, by far the longest of
the three forms and requiring a number of essay-type answers, is
completed by all independent directorship nominees, including
incumbents seeking re-nomination. The information requested on the form
is designed to confirm that the nominee is legally eligible to serve as
an independent director, has the required professional qualifications
for the type of independent directorship being sought, and is of high
personal integrity and to identify any potential conflicts of interest
of which the Bank should be aware. The revisions tie the questions more
closely to statutory and regulatory requirements, provide more
structured answer choices so as to ensure responses are relevant,
solicit more comprehensive information on issues about which the Bank
must weigh facts to make a legal judgment about the nominee's
eligibility, and generally streamline the questions. The revisions
should allow nominees to complete the form more quickly by providing
preset answer choices for many questions, permitting attachments in
answer to certain questions, and eliminating some superfluous
questions. FHFA estimates that, in addition to encouraging more
accurate and complete answers, the revisions will reduce the amount of
time it takes a nominee to complete the form from three to two hours.
The Independent Director Annual Certification Form is completed by
incumbent independent directors annually to certify that they remain
legally eligible to serve. The prior form provided independent
directors with the option merely to check a box stating that ``no
changes have occurred'' with respect to the director's compliance with
the statutory eligibility requirements. In the Agency's view, providing
this option resulted in some independent directors overlooking changes
in residence or employment that might have rendered them ineligible to
continue to serve. The revised form requires independent directors to
provide current information on residence and employment to allow the
Bank to determine whether there may be new information leading to
eligibility concerns.
The Member Director Eligibility Certification Form is completed
both by nominees running for a member directorship and annually by
incumbent member directors to certify their continuing eligibility. The
form is intended to confirm that member directors and member
directorship nominees are legally eligible to serve in the directorship
positions they occupy or are seeking. Although some questions on the
form have been revised to provide preset answers, the substance of the
questions on the revised form remain essentially the same as those on
the prior form. The Member Director Eligibility Certification Form was
most recently revised in August 2020 to remove a notarization
requirement (neither of the other two Bank director forms had such a
requirement).
The revised questions, including preset answer selections, and
instructions for each of the Bank director forms appear at the end of
this notice. The final formatting of the revised forms is currently in
process.
C. Burden Estimate
FHFA estimates the total annual hour burden imposed upon
respondents by the three Bank director forms comprising this
information collection to be 119 hours (39 hours + 50 hours + 30 hours
= 119 hours, as detailed below).
[[Page 27606]]
The Agency estimates the total annual hour burden on all member
director candidates and incumbent member directors associated with
review and completion of the Member Director Eligibility Certification
Form to be 39 hours. This includes a total annual average of 72 member
director nominees (24 open seats per year with three nominees for each)
completing the form as an application, with 1 response per nominee
taking an average of 15 minutes (.25 hours) (72 respondents x .25 hours
= 18 hours). It also includes a total annual average of 84 incumbent
member directors not up for election completing the form as an annual
certification, with 1 response per individual taking an average of 15
minutes (.25 hours) (84 individuals x .25 hours = 21 hours).
The Agency estimates the total annual hour burden on all
independent director candidates associated with review and completion
of the Independent Director Application Form to be 50 hours. This
includes a total annual average of 25 independent director candidates
(22 open seats per year, plus three vacancies, with one nominee for
each), with 1 response per individual taking an average of 2.0 hours
(25 individuals x 2.0 hours = 50 hours).
The Agency estimates the total annual hour burden on all incumbent
independent directors associated with review and completion of the
Independent Director Annual Certification Form to be 30 hours. This
includes a total annual average of 60 incumbent independent directors
not up for election, with 1 response per individual taking an average
of 30 minutes (.5 hours) (60 individuals x .5 hours = 30 hours).
D. Comments Request
In accordance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(d), FHFA
published an initial notice and request for public comments regarding
this information collection in the Federal Register on March 3,
2021.\8\ The 60-day comment period closed on May 3, 2021. FHFA received
two comment letters--one from the eleven Banks jointly and one from a
trade association.
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\8\ See 86 FR 12448 (Mar. 3, 2021).
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In their joint letter, the Banks made a number of suggestions
regarding the rephrasing of questions and instructions on each of the
forms for greater clarity and to better elicit pertinent information.
FHFA has further revised the forms to incorporate most of those
suggestions, some verbatim and others in essence. The Banks also
requested that FHFA add more detail to the Independent Director
Application Form questions and instructions regarding the Agency's
interpretations of the statutory and regulatory independence
requirements applying to independent directors and the qualifications
requirements for public interest independent directors. FHFA has
declined to make those revisions (although it has slightly modified the
material on public interest director qualifications for greater
clarity). Agency interpretations of statutory and regulatory
requirements pertaining to Bank director eligibility are discussed in
the forms only to the extent necessary to clarify the purpose of
particular questions so as to better ensure the provision of accurate
and relevant responses. The Bank director forms are not intended to
serve as guidance documents.
The trade association's comment letter focused on FHFA's
interpretations of the statutory qualifications requirements for public
interest independent directors. Neither comment letter questioned the
need for the information collection or addressed the Agency's burden
estimates.
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.
Kevin Smith,
Chief Information Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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[FR Doc. 2021-10771 Filed 5-20-21; 8:45 am]
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