Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension, 820-821 [05-176]

Download as PDF 820 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 5, 2005 / Notices FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM Formations of, Acquisitions by, and Mergers of Bank Holding Companies The companies listed in this notice have applied to the Board for approval, pursuant to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.) (BHC Act), Regulation Y (12 CFR Part 225), and all other applicable statutes and regulations to become a bank holding company and/or to acquire the assets or the ownership of, control of, or the power to vote shares of a bank or bank holding company and all of the banks and nonbanking companies owned by the bank holding company, including the companies listed below. The applications listed below, as well as other related filings required by the Board, are available for immediate inspection at the Federal Reserve Bank indicated. The application also will be available for inspection at the offices of the Board of Governors. Interested persons may express their views in writing on the standards enumerated in the BHC Act (12 U.S.C. 1842(c)). If the proposal also involves the acquisition of a nonbanking company, the review also includes whether the acquisition of the nonbanking company complies with the standards in section 4 of the BHC Act (12 U.S.C. 1843). Unless otherwise noted, nonbanking activities will be conducted throughout the United States. Additional information on all bank holding companies may be obtained from the National Information Center website at www.ffiec.gov/nic/. Unless otherwise noted, comments regarding each of these applications must be received at the Reserve Bank indicated or the offices of the Board of Governors not later than January 31, 2005. A. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (Sue Costello, Vice President) 1000 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30303: 1. Crescent Banking Company, Jasper, Georgia; to acquire 100 percent of the voting shares of Futurus Financial Services, Inc., and thereby indirectly acquire Futurus Bank, N.A., both of Alpharetta, Georgia. B. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Glenda Wilson, Community Affairs Officer) 411 Locust Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63166-2034: 1. FSB Bancorp, Inc., Houston, Texas; to become a bank holding company by acquiring 100 percent of the voting shares of Evergreen Bancshares, Inc., and thereby indirectly acquire First State Bank, both of Crossett, Arkansas. C. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (Tracy Basinger, Director, VerDate jul<14>2003 17:49 Jan 04, 2005 Jkt 205001 Regional and Community Bank Group) 101 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94105-1579: 1. Frontier Financial Corporation, Everett, Washington; to acquire up to 20 percent of the voting shares of Skagit State Bank, Burlington, Washington. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, December 30, 2004. Margaret McCloskey Shanks, Assistant Secretary of the Board. [FR Doc. 05–209 Filed 1–4–05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6210–01–S FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension Federal Trade Commission (‘‘FTC’’). ACTION: Notice. AGENCY: SUMMARY: The information collection requirements described below have been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (‘‘OMB’’) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (‘‘PRA’’). The FTC is seeking public comments on its proposal to extend through December 31, 2006, the current PRA clearance for information collection requirements for its Mortgage Disclosure Study. That clearance was scheduled to expire on November 30, 2004. On November 22, 2004, the OMB granted the FTC’s request for a short-term extension to December 31, 2004, to allow for this second opportunity to comment. DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before February 4, 2005. ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments. Comments should refer to ‘‘Mortgage Disclosure Study—FTC File No. P025505,’’ to facilitate the organization of comments. A comment filed in paper form should include this reference both in the text and on the envelope, and should be mailed or delivered to the following address: Federal Trade Commission/Office of the Secretary, Room H–159 (Annex X), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. The FTC is requesting that any comment filed in paper form be sent by courier or overnight service, if possible, because U.S. postal mail in the Washington area and at the Commission is subject to delay due to heightened security precautions. Alternatively, comments may be filed in electronic form (in ASCII format, WordPerfect, or Microsoft Word) as part of or as an attachment to PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 e-mail messages directed to the following e-mail box: MortgageDS@ftc.gov. If the comment contains any material for which confidential treatment is requested, it must be filed in paper form, and the first page of the document must be clearly labeled ‘‘Confidential.’’ 1 All comments should additionally be submitted to: Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the Federal Trade Commission. Comments should be submitted via facsimile to (202) 395–6974 because U.S. Postal Mail is subject to lengthy delays due to heightened security precautions. The FTC Act and other laws the Commission administers permit the collection of public comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. All timely and responsive public comments will be considered by the Commission, and will be available to the public on the FTC Web site, to the extent practicable, at https://www.ftc.gov. As a matter of discretion, the FTC makes every effort to remove home contact information for individuals from the public comments it receives before placing those comments on the FTC Web site. More information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, may be found in the FTC’s privacy policy, at https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/ privacy.htm. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information should be addressed to James M. Lacko, Economist, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. Telephone: (202) 326–3387; e-mail MortgageDS@ftc.gov. On September 28, 2004, the FTC sought comment on the information collection requirements associated with the Mortgage Disclosure Study (OMB Control Number 3084–0126). See 69 FR 57932. No comments were received. Pursuant to the OMB regulations that implement the PRA (5 CFR Part 1320), the FTC is providing this second opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB approval to extend the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 1 Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The comment must be accompanied by an explicit request for confidential treatment, including the factual and legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from the public record. The request will be granted or denied by the Commission’s General Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c). E:\FR\FM\05JAN1.SGM 05JAN1 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 5, 2005 / Notices existing paperwork clearance for the rule.2 Deceptive lending cases at the FTC and elsewhere suggest that consumers who do not understand the terms of their mortgages can be subject to deception, that deception can occur even when consumers receive the disclosures required by the Truth-inLending Act, 15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq. (TILA), and that deception about mortgage terms can result in substantial consumer injury. Despite a long history of mortgage disclosure requirements and many legislative and regulatory proposals regarding disclosures, little empirical evidence exists to document the effect of current disclosures on consumer understanding of mortgage terms, consumer mortgage shopping behavior, or consumer mortgage choice. The Mortgage Disclosure Study will examine: (1) How consumers search for and choose mortgages; (2) how consumers use and understand information about mortgages, including required disclosures; and (3) whether improved disclosures might improve consumer understanding, consumer mortgage shopping, and consumers’ ability to avoid deception. The research also may assist the targeting of the FTC’s enforcement actions by identifying areas most prone to consumer misunderstanding and lender deception and may help refine disclosure remedies imposed on deceptive lenders. 1. Description of the Collection of Information and Proposed Use The FTC is conducting this study in two phases: (1) A qualitative research phase; and (2) a quantitative research phase. The qualitative research phase includes two focus groups and 36 indepth interviews. The quantitative research will include copy tests of current and alternative disclosures. Results from the first phase will be used to refine the design of the second phase. The two focus groups and 25 of the in-depth interviews have been completed under the current PRA clearance and are not part of this extension request.3 Eleven of the in2 In its September 28, 2004 Federal Register Notice, the FTC indicated it was seeking to extend the current PRA clearance through December 31, 2005. The FTC staff expect the consumer research for the Mortgage Disclosure Survey to be completed by that date, but is now seeking to extend the current PRA clearance through December 31, 2006, to allow for any unanticipated delays. 3 The September 28, 2004 Federal Register Notice included all of the in-depth interviews in the extension request; 25 of those interviews were subsequently completed under the current clearance and are not a part of this extension request. VerDate jul<14>2003 17:49 Jan 04, 2005 Jkt 205001 depth interviews have not yet been conducted. Accordingly, this extension request covers information collection for the 11 in-depth interviews that remain for the qualitative phase and the copy tests for the quantitative phase. The remaining in-depth interviews will be conducted with 11 consumers who have recently completed a mortgage transaction. Respondents will be asked to bring their loan documents to the interview. Some of the interviews will be with consumers who obtained their mortgage from a prime lender and some will be with consumers who obtained their mortgage from a subprime lender. The purpose of the interviews is to gain in-depth knowledge of the extent to which consumers use, search for, and understand mortgage information— including information about their own recent loans. The quantitative research phase will consist of copy test interviews of 800 consumers who entered into a mortgage transaction within the previous two years. If possible, approximately half of the respondents will be consumers who obtained their mortgage from a prime lender and half will be consumers who obtained their mortgage from a subprime lender. The purpose of the copy tests will be to examine whether alternative disclosures can improve consumer understanding of mortgage terms and help to reduce potential deception about mortgage offers. The findings from the focus groups and indepth interviews will be used to refine the alternative disclosures used in the copy tests. All information will be collected on a voluntary basis. The FTC has contracted with two consumer research firms (one each for the qualitative and quantitative phases) to recruit respondents, conduct the interviews, and write a brief methodological report. The results will assist the FTC in determining how required disclosures and other information affect consumers’ ability to understand the cost and features of mortgages. This understanding will further the FTC’s mission of protecting consumers and competition in this important market. 2. Estimated Hours Burden Qualitative Research The qualitative phase is complete except for 11 in-depth interviews. If all respondents for those interviews are single decision makers, this would amount to an 11 hour burden. However, some of the interviews may include couples. Assuming that about half of the interviews include couples, the hours PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 821 burden for the in-depth interviews would increase to 17 hours ((6 × 2 hours) + (5 × 1 hour)). Quantitative Research Approximately 800 consumers who engaged in a mortgage transaction during the previous two years will participate in the quantitative phase of the research. Each copy test interview will take roughly 20–30 minutes. The estimated hours burden for the quantitative phase ranges from 267 hours (800 respondents × 1⁄3 hour per respondent) to 400 hours (800 respondents × 1⁄2 hour per respondent). Total The total estimated hours burden for both phases of the study ranges from 278 hours (11 hours + 267 hours) to 417 hours (17 hours + 400 hours). William E. Kovacic, General Counsel. [FR Doc. 05–176 Filed 1–4–05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6750–01–P DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. 2004N–0437] Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; Comment Request; Medical Devices; Third-Party Review Under the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act, Third-Party Premarket Submission Review, and Quality System Inspections Under the United States/European Community Mutual Recognition Agreement AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. DATES: Fax written comments on the collection of information by February 4, 2005. ADDRESSES: OMB is still experiencing significant delays in the regular mail, including first class and express mail, and messenger deliveries are not being accepted. To ensure that comments on the information collection are received, OMB recommends that comments be faxed to the Office of Information and E:\FR\FM\05JAN1.SGM 05JAN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 3 (Wednesday, January 5, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 820-821]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-176]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'').

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The information collection requirements described below have 
been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for 
review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA''). The FTC 
is seeking public comments on its proposal to extend through December 
31, 2006, the current PRA clearance for information collection 
requirements for its Mortgage Disclosure Study. That clearance was 
scheduled to expire on November 30, 2004. On November 22, 2004, the OMB 
granted the FTC's request for a short-term extension to December 31, 
2004, to allow for this second opportunity to comment.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before February 4, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments. 
Comments should refer to ``Mortgage Disclosure Study--FTC File No. 
P025505,'' to facilitate the organization of comments. A comment filed 
in paper form should include this reference both in the text and on the 
envelope, and should be mailed or delivered to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission/Office of the Secretary, Room H-159 (Annex X), 
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. The FTC is 
requesting that any comment filed in paper form be sent by courier or 
overnight service, if possible, because U.S. postal mail in the 
Washington area and at the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security precautions. Alternatively, comments may be filed 
in electronic form (in ASCII format, WordPerfect, or Microsoft Word) as 
part of or as an attachment to e-mail messages directed to the 
following e-mail box: MortgageDS@ftc.gov. If the comment contains any 
material for which confidential treatment is requested, it must be 
filed in paper form, and the first page of the document must be clearly 
labeled ``Confidential.'' \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The comment must be 
accompanied by an explicit request for confidential treatment, 
including the factual and legal basis for the request, and must 
identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from 
the public record. The request will be granted or denied by the 
Commission's General Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the 
public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    All comments should additionally be submitted to: Office of 
Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the Federal Trade 
Commission. Comments should be submitted via facsimile to (202) 395-
6974 because U.S. Postal Mail is subject to lengthy delays due to 
heightened security precautions.
    The FTC Act and other laws the Commission administers permit the 
collection of public comments to consider and use in this proceeding as 
appropriate. All timely and responsive public comments will be 
considered by the Commission, and will be available to the public on 
the FTC Web site, to the extent practicable, at https://www.ftc.gov. As 
a matter of discretion, the FTC makes every effort to remove home 
contact information for individuals from the public comments it 
receives before placing those comments on the FTC Web site. More 
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, may 
be found in the FTC's privacy policy, at https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/
privacy.htm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be addressed to James M. Lacko, Economist, Bureau of Economics, 
Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20580. Telephone: (202) 326-3387; e-mail MortgageDS@ftc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On September 28, 2004, the FTC sought 
comment on the information collection requirements associated with the 
Mortgage Disclosure Study (OMB Control Number 3084-0126). See 69 FR 
57932. No comments were received. Pursuant to the OMB regulations that 
implement the PRA (5 CFR Part 1320), the FTC is providing this second 
opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB approval to extend the

[[Page 821]]

existing paperwork clearance for the rule.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \2\ In its September 28, 2004 Federal Register Notice, the FTC 
indicated it was seeking to extend the current PRA clearance through 
December 31, 2005. The FTC staff expect the consumer research for 
the Mortgage Disclosure Survey to be completed by that date, but is 
now seeking to extend the current PRA clearance through December 31, 
2006, to allow for any unanticipated delays.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Deceptive lending cases at the FTC and elsewhere suggest that 
consumers who do not understand the terms of their mortgages can be 
subject to deception, that deception can occur even when consumers 
receive the disclosures required by the Truth-in-Lending Act, 15 U.S.C. 
1601 et seq. (TILA), and that deception about mortgage terms can result 
in substantial consumer injury.
    Despite a long history of mortgage disclosure requirements and many 
legislative and regulatory proposals regarding disclosures, little 
empirical evidence exists to document the effect of current disclosures 
on consumer understanding of mortgage terms, consumer mortgage shopping 
behavior, or consumer mortgage choice.
    The Mortgage Disclosure Study will examine: (1) How consumers 
search for and choose mortgages; (2) how consumers use and understand 
information about mortgages, including required disclosures; and (3) 
whether improved disclosures might improve consumer understanding, 
consumer mortgage shopping, and consumers' ability to avoid deception. 
The research also may assist the targeting of the FTC's enforcement 
actions by identifying areas most prone to consumer misunderstanding 
and lender deception and may help refine disclosure remedies imposed on 
deceptive lenders.

1. Description of the Collection of Information and Proposed Use

    The FTC is conducting this study in two phases: (1) A qualitative 
research phase; and (2) a quantitative research phase. The qualitative 
research phase includes two focus groups and 36 in-depth interviews. 
The quantitative research will include copy tests of current and 
alternative disclosures. Results from the first phase will be used to 
refine the design of the second phase.
    The two focus groups and 25 of the in-depth interviews have been 
completed under the current PRA clearance and are not part of this 
extension request.\3\ Eleven of the in-depth interviews have not yet 
been conducted. Accordingly, this extension request covers information 
collection for the 11 in-depth interviews that remain for the 
qualitative phase and the copy tests for the quantitative phase.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ The September 28, 2004 Federal Register Notice included all 
of the in-depth interviews in the extension request; 25 of those 
interviews were subsequently completed under the current clearance 
and are not a part of this extension request.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The remaining in-depth interviews will be conducted with 11 
consumers who have recently completed a mortgage transaction. 
Respondents will be asked to bring their loan documents to the 
interview. Some of the interviews will be with consumers who obtained 
their mortgage from a prime lender and some will be with consumers who 
obtained their mortgage from a subprime lender. The purpose of the 
interviews is to gain in-depth knowledge of the extent to which 
consumers use, search for, and understand mortgage information--
including information about their own recent loans.
    The quantitative research phase will consist of copy test 
interviews of 800 consumers who entered into a mortgage transaction 
within the previous two years. If possible, approximately half of the 
respondents will be consumers who obtained their mortgage from a prime 
lender and half will be consumers who obtained their mortgage from a 
subprime lender. The purpose of the copy tests will be to examine 
whether alternative disclosures can improve consumer understanding of 
mortgage terms and help to reduce potential deception about mortgage 
offers. The findings from the focus groups and in-depth interviews will 
be used to refine the alternative disclosures used in the copy tests.
    All information will be collected on a voluntary basis. The FTC has 
contracted with two consumer research firms (one each for the 
qualitative and quantitative phases) to recruit respondents, conduct 
the interviews, and write a brief methodological report. The results 
will assist the FTC in determining how required disclosures and other 
information affect consumers' ability to understand the cost and 
features of mortgages. This understanding will further the FTC's 
mission of protecting consumers and competition in this important 
market.

2. Estimated Hours Burden

Qualitative Research

    The qualitative phase is complete except for 11 in-depth 
interviews. If all respondents for those interviews are single decision 
makers, this would amount to an 11 hour burden. However, some of the 
interviews may include couples. Assuming that about half of the 
interviews include couples, the hours burden for the in-depth 
interviews would increase to 17 hours ((6 x 2 hours) + (5 x 1 hour)).

Quantitative Research

    Approximately 800 consumers who engaged in a mortgage transaction 
during the previous two years will participate in the quantitative 
phase of the research. Each copy test interview will take roughly 20-30 
minutes. The estimated hours burden for the quantitative phase ranges 
from 267 hours (800 respondents x \1/3\ hour per respondent) to 400 
hours (800 respondents x \1/2\ hour per respondent).

Total

    The total estimated hours burden for both phases of the study 
ranges from 278 hours (11 hours + 267 hours) to 417 hours (17 hours + 
400 hours).

William E. Kovacic,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 05-176 Filed 1-4-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P
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