Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension, 46988-46990 [2015-19378]
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46988
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 151 / Thursday, August 6, 2015 / Notices
Reserve Bank indicated. The notices
also will be available for inspection at
the offices of the Board of Governors.
Interested persons may express their
views in writing to the Reserve Bank
indicated for that notice or to the offices
of the Board of Governors. Comments
must be received not later than August
21, 2015.
A. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
(Colette A. Fried, Assistant Vice
President) 230 South LaSalle Street,
Chicago, Illinois 60690–1414:
1. Oxford Exempt Trust, Oak Brook,
Illinois; to acquire, and George P. Colis;
John N. Colis; Leslie Colis-Ward; and
Valerie Colis; as trustees of the Oxford
Exempt Trust, to acquire or retain voting
shares of the Oxford Financial
Corporation, and thereby indirectly
retain voting shares of Oxford Bank and
Trust, both in Oak Brook, Illinois.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, August 3, 2015.
Michael J. Lewandowski,
Associate Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2015–19314 Filed 8–5–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210–01–P
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Notice of Proposals to Engage in or To
Acquire Companies Engaged in
Permissible Nonbanking Activities
The companies listed in this notice
have given notice under section 4 of the
Bank Holding Company Act (12 U.S.C.
1843) (BHC Act) and Regulation Y, (12
CFR part 225) to engage de novo, or to
acquire or control voting securities or
assets of a company, including the
companies listed below, that engages
either directly or through a subsidiary or
other company, in a nonbanking activity
that is listed in § 225.28 of Regulation Y
(12 CFR 225.28) or that the Board has
determined by Order to be closely
related to banking and permissible for
bank holding companies. Unless
otherwise noted, these activities will be
conducted throughout the United States.
Each notice is available for inspection
at the Federal Reserve Bank indicated.
The notice also will be available for
inspection at the offices of the Board of
Governors. Interested persons may
express their views in writing on the
question whether the proposal complies
with the standards of section 4 of the
BHC Act.
Unless otherwise noted, comments
regarding the notices must be received
at the Reserve Bank indicated or the
offices of the Board of Governors not
later than August 31, 2015.
A. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas
City (Dennis Denney, Assistant Vice
17:50 Aug 05, 2015
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, August 3, 2015.
Michael J. Lewandowski,
Associate Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2015–19313 Filed 8–5–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210–01–P
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request; Extension
Federal Trade Commission
(‘‘FTC’’ or ‘‘Commission’’).
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The FTC intends to ask the
Office of Management and Budget
(‘‘OMB’’) to extend for an additional
three years the current Paperwork
Reduction Act (‘‘PRA’’) clearance 1 for
the FTC’s shared enforcement with the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
(‘‘CFPB’’) of the information collection
requirements in subpart N of Regulation
V (‘‘Rule’’). That clearance expires on
December 31, 2015.
DATES: Comments must be filed by
October 5, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a
comment online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the
Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section
below. Write ‘‘Subpart N of Regulation
V, PRA Comment, P125403,’’ on your
comment and file your comment online
at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/
ftc/regulationVsubpartNpra by
following the instructions on the webbased form. If you prefer to file your
comment on paper, mail or deliver your
comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the
Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW., Suite CC–5610 (Annex J),
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your
comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the
Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th
Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610
(Annex J), Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Requests for additional information
SUMMARY:
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
VerDate Sep<11>2014
President), 1 Memorial Drive, Kansas
City, Missouri 64198–0001:
1. Equity Bancshares, Inc., Wichita,
Kansas; to acquire First Independence
Corporation, and indirectly acquire First
Federal Savings and Loan Association of
Independence, both in Independence,
Kansas, and thereby engage in the
operation of a savings association,
pursuant to section 225.28(b)(4)(ii).
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should be addressed to Ryan Mehm,
Attorney, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, (202) 326–2918, Federal
Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania
Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Overview of the Rule
The FTC shares enforcement authority
with the CFPB for subpart N of
Regulation V.2 Subpart N requires
nationwide consumer reporting agencies
and nationwide consumer specialty
reporting agencies to provide to
consumers, upon request, one free file
disclosure within any 12-month period.
Generally, it requires the nationwide
consumer reporting agencies, as defined
in section 603(p) of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act (‘‘FCRA’’), 15 U.S.C.
1681a(p), to create and operate a
centralized source that provides
consumers with the ability to request
their free annual file disclosures from
each of the nationwide consumer
reporting agencies through a centralized
Internet Web site, toll-free telephone
number, and postal address. Subpart N
also requires the nationwide consumer
reporting agencies to establish a
standardized form for Internet and mail
requests for annual file disclosures, and
provides a model standardized form that
may be used to comply with that
requirement. It additionally requires
nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies, as defined in section
603(w) of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. 1681a(w),
to establish a streamlined process for
consumers to request annual file
disclosures. This streamlined process
must include a toll-free telephone
number for consumers to make such
requests.
II. Burden Statement
Because the FTC shares enforcement
authority with the CFPB for subpart N,
the two agencies split between them the
related estimate of PRA burden for firms
under their co-enforcement jurisdiction.
Estimated PRA burden, excluding the
halving (to be shown at the conclusion
of this analysis), are as follows:
A. Requests per Year From Consumers
for Free Annual File Disclosures
The Consumer Data Industry
Association had once stated that
between December 2004 and December
2 Subpart N sets forth the former FTC’s Free
Annual File Disclosures Rule that appeared under
16 CFR parts 610 and 698. Rulemaking authority for
this and several other FCRA rules was transferred
to the CFBP under title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Public
Law 111–203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010). Title X
comprises sections 1001–100H (collectively, the
‘‘Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010’’).
E:\FR\FM\06AUN1.SGM
06AUN1
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 151 / Thursday, August 6, 2015 / Notices
2006, the nationwide consumer
reporting agencies provided over 52
million free annual file disclosures
through the centralized Internet Web
site, toll-free telephone number, and
postal address required to be established
by the FACT Act and subpart N,3 an
annual rate of about 26 million requests
per year. When it last sought clearance
renewal for the Rule, the FTC had been
unable to obtain, through public
comment or otherwise, updated
information on request volume. As a
proxy, it then assumed a volume of 30
million requests per year. We expect
that the number of requests for free
annual credit reports will rise over the
next three years because of increases in
the population and consumer awareness
that they are entitled to a free annual
report. As a proxy, we will now use an
estimate of 35 million requests per year
as a representative average year to
estimate PRA burden for purposes of the
instant analysis.
The Commission, however, seeks
more recent estimates of the number of
requests consumers are making for free
annual credit reports. In addition to data
on the number of requests, data on how
the number of requests has changed
over time, and how these requests are
being received—by Internet, phone, or
by mail—would be most helpful.
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
B. Annual File Disclosures Provided
Through the Internet
Both nationwide and nationwide
specialty consumer reporting agencies
will likely handle the overwhelming
majority of consumer requests through
Internet Web sites. The annual file
disclosure requests processed through
the Internet will not impose any hours
burden per request on the nationwide
and nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies. However, consumer
reporting agencies periodically will be
required to adjust the Internet capacity
needed to handle the changing request
volume. Consumer reporting agencies
likely will make such adjustments by
negotiating or renegotiating outsourcing
service contracts annually or as
conditions change. Trained personnel
will need to spend time negotiating and
renegotiating such contracts.
Commission staff estimates that
negotiating such contracts will require a
cumulative total of 8,320 hours and
$545,126 in labor costs.4 Such activity
3 Letter from Stuart K. Pratt, President & CEO,
Consumer Data Industry Association, to Rep.
Barney Frank, Committee on Financial Services,
U.S. House of Representatives (Dec. 1, 2006).
4 Based on the time necessary for similar activity
in the federal government (including at the FTC),
staff estimates that such contracting and
administration will require approximately 4 full-
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17:50 Aug 05, 2015
Jkt 235001
is treated as an annual burden of
maintaining and adjusting the changing
Internet capacity requirements.
C. Annual File Disclosures Requested
Over the Telephone
Most of the telephone requests for
annual file disclosures will also be
handled in an automated fashion,
without any additional personnel
needed to process the requests. As with
the Internet, consumer reporting
agencies will require additional time
and investment to increase and
administer the automated telephone
capacity for the expected increase in
request volume. The nationwide and
nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies will likely make such
adjustments by negotiating or
renegotiating outsourcing service
contracts annually or as conditions
change. Staff estimates that this will
require a total of 6,240 hours at a cost
of $408,845 in labor costs.5 This activity
also is treated as an annual recurring
burden necessary to obtain, maintain,
and adjust automated call center
capacity.
D. Annual File Disclosures Requiring
Processing by Mail
Based on their knowledge of the
industry, staff believes that no more
than 1% of consumers (1% × 35 million,
or 350,000) will request an annual file
disclosure through U.S. postal service
mail. Staff estimates that clerical
personnel will require 10 minutes per
request to handle these requests, thereby
totaling 58,333 hours of time. [(350,000
× 10 minutes)/60 minutes = 58,333
hours]
In addition, whenever the requesting
consumer cannot be identified using an
automated method (a Web site or
automated telephone service), it will be
necessary to redirect that consumer to
send identifying material along with the
request by mail. Staff estimates that this
will occur in about 5% of the new
time equivalent employees (‘‘FTE’’) for the web
service contracts. Thus, staff estimates that
administering the contract will require 4 FTE,
which is 8,320 hours per year (4 FTE × 2,080 hours/
year). The cost is based on the reported May 2014
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) rate ($65.52) for
computer and information systems managers. See
Occupational Employment and Wages—May 2014,
Table 1, available at https://www.bls.gov/
news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm. Thus, the estimated
setup and maintenance cost for an Internet system
is $545,126 per year (8,320 hours × $65.52/hour).
5 Staff estimates that recurring contracting for
automated telephone capacity will require
approximately 3 FTE, a total of 6,240 hours (3 ×
2,080 hours). Applying an hourly wage rate of
$65.52 (see supra note 4), estimated setup and
maintenance cost is $408,845 (6,240 × $65.52) per
year.
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46989
requests (or 1,732,500 6) that were
originally placed over the Internet or
telephone. Staff estimates that clerical
personnel will require approximately 10
minutes per request to input and
process those redirected requests for a
cumulative total of 288,750 clerical
hours. [(1,732,500 × 10 minutes)/60
minutes = 288,750 hours]
E. Instructions to Consumers
The Rule also requires that certain
instructions be provided to consumers.
See Rule sections
1022.136(b)(2)(iv)(A,B),
1022.137(a)(2)(iii)(A,B). Minimal
associated time or cost is involved,
however. Internet instructions to
consumers are embedded in the
centralized source Web site and do not
require additional time or cost for the
nationwide consumer reporting
agencies. Similarly, for telephone
requests, the automated phone systems
provide the requisite instructions when
consumers select certain options. Some
consumers who request their credit
reports by mail might additionally
request printed instructions from the
nationwide and nationwide specialty
consumer reporting agencies. Staff
estimates that there will be a total of
2,082,500 requests each year for free
annual file disclosures by mail.7 Based
on their knowledge of the industry, staff
estimates that, of the predicted
2,082,500 mail requests, 10% (or
208,250) will request instructions by
mail. If printed instructions are sent to
each of these consumers by mail,
requiring 10 minutes of clerical time per
consumer, this will total 34,708 hours.
[(208,250 instructions × 10 minutes)/60
minutes per hour].
F. Labor Costs
Labor costs are derived by applying
hourly cost figures to the burden hours
described above. Staff anticipates that
processing of requests for annual file
disclosures and instructions will be
performed by clerical personnel, and
estimates that the processing will
require 327,250 hours at a cost of
$6,322,459. [(58,333 hours for handling
initial mail request + 288,750 hours for
handling requests redirected to mail +
34,708 hours for handling instructions
6 This figure reflects five percent of all requests,
net of the estimated one percent of all requests that
might initially be made by mail. That is, .05 ×
(35,000,000 ¥ 350,000) = 1,732,500.
7 This figure includes both the estimated 1% of
35 million requests that will be made by mail each
year (350,000), and the estimated 1,732,500 requests
initially made over the Internet or telephone that
will be redirected to the mail process (see supra
note 6).
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46990
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 151 / Thursday, August 6, 2015 / Notices
mailed to consumers) × $16.56 per
hour.8]
As elaborated on above, staff
estimates that a total of 14,560 labor
hours will be needed to negotiate or
renegotiate outsourced service contracts
annually (or as conditions otherwise
change) to increase internet (8,320
hours) and telephone (6,240 hours)
capacity requirements for internet web
services and the automated telephone
call center. This will result in
approximately $953,971 per year in
labor costs. [14,560 hours × $65.52 per
hour 9]
Thus, estimated cumulative labor will
costs are $7,276,430.
G. Capital/Non-Labor Costs
As in the previous PRA clearance
analysis, FTC staff believes it is likely
that consumer reporting agencies will
use third-party contractors (instead of
their own employees) to increase the
capacity of their systems. Because of the
way these contracts are typically
established, these costs will likely be
incurred on a continuing basis, and will
be calculated based on the number of
requests handled by the systems. Staff
estimates that the total annual amount
to be paid for services delivered under
these contracts is $11,931,500.10
H. Net Burden for FTC, After 50:50 Split
After halving the updated estimates to
split the PRA burden with the CFPB
regarding the Rule, the FTC’s burden
totals are 198,176 hours, $3,638,215 in
associated labor costs, and $5,965,750 in
non-labor/capital costs.
III. Request for Comment
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
You can file a comment online or on
paper. For the Commission to consider
your comment, we must receive it on or
before October 5, 2015. Write ‘‘Subpart
N of Regulation V, PRA Comment,
P125403’’ on your comment. Your
comment—including your name and
your state—will be placed on the public
record of this proceeding, including to
the extent practicable, on the public
Commission Web site, at https://
www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm.
As a matter of discretion, the
Commission tries to remove individuals’
home contact information from
8 See Occupational Employment and Wages—
May 2014, Table 1, available at https://www.bls.gov/
news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm (Office and
administrative support workers, general).
9 See supra notes 4 and 5.
10 This consists of an estimated $7,913,500 for
automated telephone cost ($1.33 per request × 5.95
million requests) and an estimated $4,018,000
($0.14 per request × 28.7 million requests) for
Internet web service cost. Per unit cost estimates are
based on staff’s knowledge of the industry.
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:50 Aug 05, 2015
Jkt 235001
comments before placing them on the
Commission Web site.
Because your comment will be made
public, you are solely responsible for
making sure that your comment does
not include any sensitive personal
information, like anyone’s Social
Security number, date of birth, driver’s
license number or other state
identification number or foreign country
equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card
number. You are also solely responsible
for making sure that your comment does
not include any sensitive health
information, like medical records or
other individually identifiable health
information. In addition, do not include
any ‘‘[t]rade secret or any commercial or
financial information which is . . .
privileged or confidential’’ as provided
in section 6(f) of the FTC Act 15 U.S.C.
46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include
competitively sensitive information
such as costs, sales statistics,
inventories, formulas, patterns devices,
manufacturing processes, or customer
names.
If you want the Commission to give
your comment confidential treatment,
you must file it in paper form, with a
request for confidential treatment, and
you have to follow the procedure
explained in FTC Rule 4.9(c).11 Your
comment will be kept confidential only
if the FTC General Counsel grants your
request in accordance with the law and
the public interest.
Postal mail addressed to the
Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a
result, we encourage you to submit your
comments online. To make sure that the
Commission considers your online
comment, you must file it at https://
ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/
regulationVsubpartNpra, by following
the instructions on the web-based form.
If this Notice appears at https://
www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also
may file a comment through that Web
site.
If you file your comment on paper,
write ‘‘Subpart N of Regulation V, PRA
Comment, P125403’’ on your comment
and on the envelope, and mail or deliver
it to the following address: Federal
Trade Commission, Office of the
Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th
Street, SW. 5th Floor, Suite 5610
(Annex J), Washington, DC 20024. If
possible, submit your paper comment to
11 In particular, the written request for
confidential treatment that accompanies the
comment must include the factual and legal basis
for the request, and must identify the specific
portions of the comment to be withheld from the
public record. See FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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the Commission by courier or overnight
service.
The FTC Act and other laws that the
Commission administers permit the
collection of public comments to
consider and use in this proceeding as
appropriate. The Commission will
consider all timely and responsive
public comments that it receives on or
before October 5, 2015. For information
on the Commission’s privacy policy,
including routine uses permitted by the
Privacy Act, see https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/
privacy.htm.
David C. Shonka,
Principal Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2015–19378 Filed 8–5–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. FDA–2004–D–0500] (formerly
Docket No. 2004D–0042)
Brief Summary and Adequate
Directions for Use: Disclosing Risk
Information in Consumer-Directed
Print Advertisements and Promotional
Labeling for Prescription Drugs;
Revised Draft Guidance for Industry
(Revision 2); Availability
AGENCY:
Food and Drug Administration,
HHS.
ACTION:
Notice of availability.
The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is announcing the
reissuance of a revised draft guidance
for industry (Revision 2) entitled ‘‘Brief
Summary and Adequate Directions for
Use: Disclosing Risk Information in
Consumer-Directed Print
Advertisements and Promotional
Labeling for Prescription Drugs.’’ We are
reissuing the revised draft guidance to
incorporate animal prescription drugs.
This reissued revised draft guidance,
when finalized, will assist
manufacturers, packers, and distributors
(firms) of human prescription drugs,
including biologics, and animal
prescription drugs, with meeting the
brief summary requirement for
prescription drug advertising and the
requirement that adequate directions for
use be included with promotional
labeling for prescription drugs when
print materials are directed toward
consumers.
DATES: Although you can comment on
any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR
10.115(g)(5)), to ensure that the Agency
considers your comments on this
reissued revised draft guidance before it
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\06AUN1.SGM
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Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 151 (Thursday, August 6, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46988-46990]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-19378]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request; Extension
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'').
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The FTC intends to ask the Office of Management and Budget
(``OMB'') to extend for an additional three years the current Paperwork
Reduction Act (``PRA'') clearance \1\ for the FTC's shared enforcement
with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (``CFPB'') of the
information collection requirements in subpart N of Regulation V
(``Rule''). That clearance expires on December 31, 2015.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ OMB Control No. 3084-0128.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DATES: Comments must be filed by October 5, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Subpart N of
Regulation V, PRA Comment, P125403,'' on your comment and file your
comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/regulationVsubpartNpra by following the instructions on the web-based
form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, mail or deliver your
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex J),
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center,
400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC
20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be addressed to Ryan Mehm, Attorney, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, (202) 326-2918, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania
Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Overview of the Rule
The FTC shares enforcement authority with the CFPB for subpart N of
Regulation V.\2\ Subpart N requires nationwide consumer reporting
agencies and nationwide consumer specialty reporting agencies to
provide to consumers, upon request, one free file disclosure within any
12-month period. Generally, it requires the nationwide consumer
reporting agencies, as defined in section 603(p) of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act (``FCRA''), 15 U.S.C. 1681a(p), to create and operate a
centralized source that provides consumers with the ability to request
their free annual file disclosures from each of the nationwide consumer
reporting agencies through a centralized Internet Web site, toll-free
telephone number, and postal address. Subpart N also requires the
nationwide consumer reporting agencies to establish a standardized form
for Internet and mail requests for annual file disclosures, and
provides a model standardized form that may be used to comply with that
requirement. It additionally requires nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies, as defined in section 603(w) of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C.
1681a(w), to establish a streamlined process for consumers to request
annual file disclosures. This streamlined process must include a toll-
free telephone number for consumers to make such requests.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Subpart N sets forth the former FTC's Free Annual File
Disclosures Rule that appeared under 16 CFR parts 610 and 698.
Rulemaking authority for this and several other FCRA rules was
transferred to the CFBP under title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Public Law 111-203, 124 Stat.
1376 (2010). Title X comprises sections 1001-100H (collectively, the
``Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
II. Burden Statement
Because the FTC shares enforcement authority with the CFPB for
subpart N, the two agencies split between them the related estimate of
PRA burden for firms under their co-enforcement jurisdiction. Estimated
PRA burden, excluding the halving (to be shown at the conclusion of
this analysis), are as follows:
A. Requests per Year From Consumers for Free Annual File Disclosures
The Consumer Data Industry Association had once stated that between
December 2004 and December
[[Page 46989]]
2006, the nationwide consumer reporting agencies provided over 52
million free annual file disclosures through the centralized Internet
Web site, toll-free telephone number, and postal address required to be
established by the FACT Act and subpart N,\3\ an annual rate of about
26 million requests per year. When it last sought clearance renewal for
the Rule, the FTC had been unable to obtain, through public comment or
otherwise, updated information on request volume. As a proxy, it then
assumed a volume of 30 million requests per year. We expect that the
number of requests for free annual credit reports will rise over the
next three years because of increases in the population and consumer
awareness that they are entitled to a free annual report. As a proxy,
we will now use an estimate of 35 million requests per year as a
representative average year to estimate PRA burden for purposes of the
instant analysis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Letter from Stuart K. Pratt, President & CEO, Consumer Data
Industry Association, to Rep. Barney Frank, Committee on Financial
Services, U.S. House of Representatives (Dec. 1, 2006).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Commission, however, seeks more recent estimates of the number
of requests consumers are making for free annual credit reports. In
addition to data on the number of requests, data on how the number of
requests has changed over time, and how these requests are being
received--by Internet, phone, or by mail--would be most helpful.
B. Annual File Disclosures Provided Through the Internet
Both nationwide and nationwide specialty consumer reporting
agencies will likely handle the overwhelming majority of consumer
requests through Internet Web sites. The annual file disclosure
requests processed through the Internet will not impose any hours
burden per request on the nationwide and nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies. However, consumer reporting agencies periodically
will be required to adjust the Internet capacity needed to handle the
changing request volume. Consumer reporting agencies likely will make
such adjustments by negotiating or renegotiating outsourcing service
contracts annually or as conditions change. Trained personnel will need
to spend time negotiating and renegotiating such contracts. Commission
staff estimates that negotiating such contracts will require a
cumulative total of 8,320 hours and $545,126 in labor costs.\4\ Such
activity is treated as an annual burden of maintaining and adjusting
the changing Internet capacity requirements.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Based on the time necessary for similar activity in the
federal government (including at the FTC), staff estimates that such
contracting and administration will require approximately 4 full-
time equivalent employees (``FTE'') for the web service contracts.
Thus, staff estimates that administering the contract will require 4
FTE, which is 8,320 hours per year (4 FTE x 2,080 hours/year). The
cost is based on the reported May 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) rate ($65.52) for computer and information systems managers.
See Occupational Employment and Wages--May 2014, Table 1, available
at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm. Thus, the
estimated setup and maintenance cost for an Internet system is
$545,126 per year (8,320 hours x $65.52/hour).
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C. Annual File Disclosures Requested Over the Telephone
Most of the telephone requests for annual file disclosures will
also be handled in an automated fashion, without any additional
personnel needed to process the requests. As with the Internet,
consumer reporting agencies will require additional time and investment
to increase and administer the automated telephone capacity for the
expected increase in request volume. The nationwide and nationwide
specialty consumer reporting agencies will likely make such adjustments
by negotiating or renegotiating outsourcing service contracts annually
or as conditions change. Staff estimates that this will require a total
of 6,240 hours at a cost of $408,845 in labor costs.\5\ This activity
also is treated as an annual recurring burden necessary to obtain,
maintain, and adjust automated call center capacity.
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\5\ Staff estimates that recurring contracting for automated
telephone capacity will require approximately 3 FTE, a total of
6,240 hours (3 x 2,080 hours). Applying an hourly wage rate of
$65.52 (see supra note 4), estimated setup and maintenance cost is
$408,845 (6,240 x $65.52) per year.
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D. Annual File Disclosures Requiring Processing by Mail
Based on their knowledge of the industry, staff believes that no
more than 1% of consumers (1% x 35 million, or 350,000) will request an
annual file disclosure through U.S. postal service mail. Staff
estimates that clerical personnel will require 10 minutes per request
to handle these requests, thereby totaling 58,333 hours of time.
[(350,000 x 10 minutes)/60 minutes = 58,333 hours]
In addition, whenever the requesting consumer cannot be identified
using an automated method (a Web site or automated telephone service),
it will be necessary to redirect that consumer to send identifying
material along with the request by mail. Staff estimates that this will
occur in about 5% of the new requests (or 1,732,500 \6\) that were
originally placed over the Internet or telephone. Staff estimates that
clerical personnel will require approximately 10 minutes per request to
input and process those redirected requests for a cumulative total of
288,750 clerical hours. [(1,732,500 x 10 minutes)/60 minutes = 288,750
hours]
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\6\ This figure reflects five percent of all requests, net of
the estimated one percent of all requests that might initially be
made by mail. That is, .05 x (35,000,000 - 350,000) = 1,732,500.
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E. Instructions to Consumers
The Rule also requires that certain instructions be provided to
consumers. See Rule sections 1022.136(b)(2)(iv)(A,B),
1022.137(a)(2)(iii)(A,B). Minimal associated time or cost is involved,
however. Internet instructions to consumers are embedded in the
centralized source Web site and do not require additional time or cost
for the nationwide consumer reporting agencies. Similarly, for
telephone requests, the automated phone systems provide the requisite
instructions when consumers select certain options. Some consumers who
request their credit reports by mail might additionally request printed
instructions from the nationwide and nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies. Staff estimates that there will be a total of
2,082,500 requests each year for free annual file disclosures by
mail.\7\ Based on their knowledge of the industry, staff estimates
that, of the predicted 2,082,500 mail requests, 10% (or 208,250) will
request instructions by mail. If printed instructions are sent to each
of these consumers by mail, requiring 10 minutes of clerical time per
consumer, this will total 34,708 hours. [(208,250 instructions x 10
minutes)/60 minutes per hour].
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\7\ This figure includes both the estimated 1% of 35 million
requests that will be made by mail each year (350,000), and the
estimated 1,732,500 requests initially made over the Internet or
telephone that will be redirected to the mail process (see supra
note 6).
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F. Labor Costs
Labor costs are derived by applying hourly cost figures to the
burden hours described above. Staff anticipates that processing of
requests for annual file disclosures and instructions will be performed
by clerical personnel, and estimates that the processing will require
327,250 hours at a cost of $6,322,459. [(58,333 hours for handling
initial mail request + 288,750 hours for handling requests redirected
to mail + 34,708 hours for handling instructions
[[Page 46990]]
mailed to consumers) x $16.56 per hour.\8\]
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\8\ See Occupational Employment and Wages--May 2014, Table 1,
available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm (Office
and administrative support workers, general).
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As elaborated on above, staff estimates that a total of 14,560
labor hours will be needed to negotiate or renegotiate outsourced
service contracts annually (or as conditions otherwise change) to
increase internet (8,320 hours) and telephone (6,240 hours) capacity
requirements for internet web services and the automated telephone call
center. This will result in approximately $953,971 per year in labor
costs. [14,560 hours x $65.52 per hour \9\]
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\9\ See supra notes 4 and 5.
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Thus, estimated cumulative labor will costs are $7,276,430.
G. Capital/Non-Labor Costs
As in the previous PRA clearance analysis, FTC staff believes it is
likely that consumer reporting agencies will use third-party
contractors (instead of their own employees) to increase the capacity
of their systems. Because of the way these contracts are typically
established, these costs will likely be incurred on a continuing basis,
and will be calculated based on the number of requests handled by the
systems. Staff estimates that the total annual amount to be paid for
services delivered under these contracts is $11,931,500.\10\
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\10\ This consists of an estimated $7,913,500 for automated
telephone cost ($1.33 per request x 5.95 million requests) and an
estimated $4,018,000 ($0.14 per request x 28.7 million requests) for
Internet web service cost. Per unit cost estimates are based on
staff's knowledge of the industry.
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H. Net Burden for FTC, After 50:50 Split
After halving the updated estimates to split the PRA burden with
the CFPB regarding the Rule, the FTC's burden totals are 198,176 hours,
$3,638,215 in associated labor costs, and $5,965,750 in non-labor/
capital costs.
III. Request for Comment
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before October 5, 2015.
Write ``Subpart N of Regulation V, PRA Comment, P125403'' on your
comment. Your comment--including your name and your state--will be
placed on the public record of this proceeding, including to the extent
practicable, on the public Commission Web site, at https://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of discretion, the Commission tries
to remove individuals' home contact information from comments before
placing them on the Commission Web site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which is . . . privileged or confidential'' as provided in section 6(f)
of the FTC Act 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas,
patterns devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c).\11\ Your comment will be kept confidential only if
the FTC General Counsel grants your request in accordance with the law
and the public interest.
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\11\ In particular, the written request for confidential
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/regulationVsubpartNpra, by following the instructions on the web-
based form. If this Notice appears at https://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Subpart N of Regulation
V, PRA Comment, P125403'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail
or deliver it to the following address: Federal Trade Commission,
Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street, SW. 5th
Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit
your paper comment to the Commission by courier or overnight service.
The FTC Act and other laws that the Commission administers permit
the collection of public comments to consider and use in this
proceeding as appropriate. The Commission will consider all timely and
responsive public comments that it receives on or before October 5,
2015. For information on the Commission's privacy policy, including
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
David C. Shonka,
Principal Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2015-19378 Filed 8-5-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P