Proposed Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request, 39847-39849 [2019-17186]
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Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 155 / Monday, August 12, 2019 / Notices
Consultation outside the agency: The
reporting and disclosure requirements
discussed in this supporting statement
were promulgated by the SEC. The
Board has not consulted with the SEC
or any other parties with regard to the
proposed extension for three years, with
revision, of the FR H–1.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, August 7, 2019.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2019–17185 Filed 8–9–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210–01–P
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Announcement of Board
Approval Under Delegated Authority
and Submission to OMB
Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System.
SUMMARY: The Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System (Board) is
adopting a proposal to extend for three
years, with revision, the Reporting
Requirements Associated with
Supervision and Regulation
Assessments of Fees (Regulation TT)
(FR TT; 1 OMB No. 7100–0369).
DATES: The revisions are applicable
immediately.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Federal Reserve Board Clearance
Officer—Nuha Elmaghrabi—Office of
the Chief Data Officer, Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, Washington, DC 20551 (202)
452–3829.
Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) Desk Officer—Shagufta Ahmed—
Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, Office of Management and
Budget, New Executive Office Building,
Room 10235, 725 17th Street NW,
Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to (202)
395–6974.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June
15, 1984, OMB delegated to the Board
authority under the Paperwork
Reduction Act (PRA) to approve and
assign OMB control numbers to
collection of information requests and
requirements conducted or sponsored
by the Board. Board-approved
collections of information are
incorporated into the official OMB
inventory of currently approved
collections of information. Copies of the
PRA Submission, supporting statements
jspears on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
AGENCY:
and approved collection of information
instrument(s) are placed into OMB’s
public docket files. The Board may not
conduct or sponsor, and the respondent
is not required to respond to, an
information collection that has been
extended, revised, or implemented on or
after October 1, 1995, unless it displays
a currently valid OMB control number.
Final Approval Under OMB Delegated
Authority of the Extension for Three
Years, With Revision, of the Following
Information Collection
Report title: Reporting Requirements
Associated with Supervision and
Regulation Assessments of Fees
(Regulation TT).
Agency form number: FR TT.
OMB control number: 7100–0369.
Effective date: Immediately.
Frequency: On occasion.
Respondents: Bank holding
companies (BHCs) and savings and loan
holding companies (SLHCs) and all
nonbank financial companies
designated for Board supervision by the
Financial Stability Oversight Council
(FSOC).
Estimated number of respondents: 3.
Estimated average hours per response:
40.
Estimated annual burden hours: 120.
General description of report: The
Board’s Regulation TT 2 implements
section 11(s) of the Federal Reserve Act
(FRA),3 which directs the Board to
collect assessments, fees, or other
charges (collectively, ‘‘assessments’’)
from BHCs and SLHCs that meet a
statutory size threshold and from all
nonbank financial companies
designated for Board supervision by
FSOC (collectively, ‘‘assessed
companies’’) in an amount equal to the
total expenses the Board estimates are
necessary or appropriate to carry out its
supervisory and regulatory
responsibilities with respect to such
companies. Pursuant to Regulation TT,
the Board issues an annual notice of
assessment to each assessed company.
Assessed companies may file a written
appeal with the Board regarding the
assessment.4
Legal authorization and
confidentiality: The FR TT is authorized
pursuant to section 11(i) of the FRA (12
U.S.C. 248(i)), which provides that the
Board shall make all rules and
regulations necessary to enable the
Board to effectively perform the duties,
2 12
1 The
internal Agency Tracking Number
previously assigned by the Board to this
information collection was Reg TT. The Board is
changing the internal Agency Tracking Number for
the purpose of consistency.
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Jkt 247001
CFR part 246.
U.S.C. 248(s). Section 11(s) of the Federal
Reserve Act was added by section 318 of the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act.
4 12 CFR 246.5(b).
3 12
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39847
functions, or services specified in the
FRA. The FR TT is voluntary.
An assessed company may request
confidential treatment of its appeal if it
believes that disclosure of specific
commercial or financial information in
the statement would likely result in
substantial harm to its competitive
position. The determination that such
information is confidential and not
subject to disclosure under the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C.
552), would need to be made on a caseby-case basis, consistent with FOIA
exemption 4 (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)).
Current actions: On April 8, 2019, the
Board published an initial notice in the
Federal Register (84 FR 13918)
requesting public comment for 60 days
on the extension, with revision, of
Reporting Requirements Associated
with Supervision and Regulation
Assessments of Fees (Regulation TT).
The comment period for this notice
expired on June 7, 2019. The Board did
not receive any comments. The
revisions will be implemented as
proposed.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, August 7, 2019.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2019–17187 Filed 8–9–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210–01–P
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
Proposed Agency Information
Collection Activities; Comment
Request
Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System.
ACTION: Notice, request for comment.
AGENCY:
The Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System (Board) invites
comment on a proposal to extend for
three years, with revision, the
Interchange Transaction Fees Survey
(FR 3064; OMB No. 7100–0344).
DATES: Comments must be submitted on
or before October 11, 2019.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
identified by FR 3064, by any of the
following methods:
• Agency Website: https://
www.federalreserve.gov/. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments at
https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/
foia/proposedregs.aspx.
• Email: regs.comments@
federalreserve.gov. Include the OMB
number in the subject line of the
message.
• FAX: (202) 452–3819 or (202) 452–
3102.
SUMMARY:
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39848
Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 155 / Monday, August 12, 2019 / Notices
• Mail: Ann E. Misback, Secretary,
Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System, 20th Street and
Constitution Avenue NW, Washington,
DC 20551.
All public comments are available
from the Board’s website at https://
www.federalreserve.gov/apps/foia/
proposedregs.aspx as submitted, unless
modified for technical reasons or to
remove personally identifiable
information at the commenter’s request.
Accordingly, comments will not be
edited to remove any identifying or
contact information. Public comments
may also be viewed electronically or in
paper in Room 146, 1709 New York
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006,
between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on
weekdays. For security reasons, the
Board requires that visitors make an
appointment to inspect comments. You
may do so by calling (202) 452–3684.
Upon arrival, visitors will be required to
present valid government-issued photo
identification and to submit to security
screening in order to inspect and
photocopy comments.
Additionally, commenters may send a
copy of their comments to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) Desk
Officer—Shagufta Ahmed—Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs,
Office of Management and Budget, New
Executive Office Building, Room 10235,
725 17th Street NW, Washington, DC
20503, or by fax to (202) 395–6974.
A
copy of the Paperwork Reduction Act
(PRA) OMB submission, including the
reporting form and instructions,
supporting statement, and other
documentation will be placed into
OMB’s public docket files, if approved.
These documents will also be made
available on the Board’s public website
at https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/
reportforms/review.aspx or may be
requested from the agency clearance
officer, whose name appears below.
Federal Reserve Board Clearance
Officer—Nuha Elmaghrabi—Office of
the Chief Data Officer, Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, Washington, DC 20551, (202)
452–3829.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
On June
15, 1984, OMB delegated to the Board
authority under the PRA to approve and
assign OMB control numbers to
collections of information conducted or
sponsored by the Board. In exercising
this delegated authority, the Board is
directed to take every reasonable step to
solicit comment. In determining
whether to approve a collection of
information, the Board will consider all
jspears on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
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Jkt 247001
comments received from the public and
other agencies.
Request for Comment on Information
Collection Proposal
The Board invites public comment on
the following information collection,
which is being reviewed under
authority delegated by the OMB under
the PRA. Comments are invited on the
following:
a. Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the Board’s functions,
including whether the information has
practical utility;
b. The accuracy of the Board’s
estimate of the burden of the proposed
information collection, including the
validity of the methodology and
assumptions used;
c. Ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected;
d. Ways to minimize the burden of
information collection on respondents,
including through the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology; and
e. Estimates of capital or startup costs
and costs of operation, maintenance,
and purchase of services to provide
information.
At the end of the comment period, the
comments and recommendations
received will be analyzed to determine
the extent to which the Board should
modify the proposal.
Proposal under OMB Delegated
Authority to Extend for Three Years,
With Revision, the Following
Information Collection:
Report title: Interchange Transaction
Fees Survey.
Agency form number: FR 3064.
OMB control number: 7100–0344.
Frequency: Annually.
Respondents: Debit card issuers and
payment card networks.
Estimated number of respondents: FR
3064a, 541 respondents; and FR 3064b,
15 respondents.
Estimated average hours per response:
FR 3064a, 160 hours; and FR 3064b, 75
hours.
Estimated annual burden hours: FR
3064a, 86,560 hours; and FR 3064b,
1,125 hours.
General description of report: The
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (DoddFrank Act) requires the Board to
disclose, at least every two years, such
aggregate or summary information
concerning the costs incurred for, and
interchange transaction fees received by,
issuers with respect to debit card
transactions as the Board considers
appropriate or in the public interest.
PO 00000
Frm 00053
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
The data from these surveys are used in
fulfilling that disclosure requirement. In
addition, the Board uses data from the
payment card network survey (FR
3064b) to publicly report on an annual
basis the extent to which networks have
established separate interchange fees for
exempt and covered issuers.1 Finally,
the Board uses the data from these
surveys in determining whether to
propose revisions to the interchange fee
standards in Debit Card Interchange
Fees and Routing (Regulation II) (12
CFR part 235). The Dodd-Frank Act
provides the Board with authority to
require debit card issuers and payment
card networks to submit information in
order to carry out provisions of the
Dodd-Frank Act regarding interchange
fee standards.
Proposed revisions: The Board
proposes the following revisions to the
FR 3064a:
Remove breakout of interchange fees
reimbursed to acquirers as a result of
chargebacks or returns (Section II, III,
IV, and V, Question 6b.1 and 6b.2).
Currently, debit card issuers are asked
to break out separately the amount of
interchange fees reimbursed to acquirers
as a result of chargebacks and returns,
as well as the total amount of
interchange fees reimbursed to acquirers
as a result of chargebacks or returns.
Because only the total amount of
interchange fees reimbursed to acquirers
is needed to compute the net
interchange fee revenue received by an
issuer, the Board proposes deleting
questions 6b.1 and 6b.2.
Add tokenization as an option for
fraud prevention activity (Section II, III,
IV, and V, Question 5c). The existing
fraud prevention activities that an issuer
has the option to select are transaction
monitoring, merchant blocking, data
security, and PIN customization. The
Board views tokenization as an
important emerging fraud prevention
technique and proposes to add it the
current list.
Update Survey Instructions and
Glossary of Terms. The Board is
proposing to add language in the
instructions to address the situation
where a debit card issuer has become
newly covered by the interchange fee
standards in the year that the survey is
being conducted, after not having been
covered in the previous year. The new
language clarifies that such an issuer
does not need to file a report with
information for the previous calendar
year, when it was not covered by the
interchange fee standards. The Board is
1 Average debit card interchange fee by payment
card network https://www.federalreserve.gov/
paymentsystems/regii-average-interchange-fee.htm.
E:\FR\FM\12AUN1.SGM
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jspears on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 155 / Monday, August 12, 2019 / Notices
also proposing updates to definitions in
the survey glossary to provide more
clarity.
The Board proposes the following
revisions to the FR 3064b:
Remove question about number of
merchant establishments (Section I,
Question 5). Because information about
the number of locations at which
merchants accept payments on the
respondent’s network is not used in the
Board’s analysis, the Board is proposing
to delete the question.
Remove question about offering an
interchange fee schedules that
differentiates between exempt and nonexempt issuers (Section I, Question 6).
This question was originally included to
enable the Board to establish whether
payment card networks were offering
interchange fee schedules that
differentiate between issuers based on
their status under Regulation II. The
existence of such differential fee
schedules has been established and can
further be inferred from responses to
subsequent questions in the survey. As
a result, the Board is proposing to
remove the question.
Remove questions about refunds of
interchange fees to acquirers for
chargebacks and returns (Section II,
Question 2b, 2b.1, 2b.2, 2c, 2c.1, 2c.2,
2d, 2d.1, 2d.2, 2e, 2e.1, and 2e.2).
Currently, the survey poses a series of
yes/no questions asking payment card
networks if they refund to acquirers the
ad valorem component, fixed pertransaction component, or the entire
interchange fee for returns and
chargebacks that compose an entire
purchase transaction or a portion of it.
These questions were originally
included to address a series of issues
that now have been resolved, so the
Board is proposing to remove them.
Update Survey Instructions and
Glossary of Terms. The Board is
proposing additional language in the
instructions to clarify reporting
expectations for entities who own
multiple networks. The Board is also
proposing updates to definitions in the
survey glossary to provide more clarity.
Legal authorization and
confidentiality: The FR 3064 is
authorized by subsection 920(a) of the
Electronic Fund Transfer Act, which
was amended by section 1075(a) of the
Dodd-Frank Act.2 This statutory
provision requires the Board, at least
once every two years,3 to disclose
aggregate or summary information
concerning the costs incurred and
interchange transaction fees charged or
received, by issuers or payment card
networks in connection with the
authorization, clearance or settlement of
electronic debit transaction as the Board
considers appropriate and in the public
interest.4 It also provides the Board with
authority to require issuers and payment
card networks to provide information to
enable the Board to carry out the
provisions of the subsection.5 The FR
3064 is mandatory. In accordance with
the statutory requirement, the Board
releases aggregate or summary
information from the survey responses.
In addition, the Board releases, at the
network level, the percentage of total
number of transactions, the percentage
of total value of transactions, and the
average transaction value for exempt
and not-exempt issuers obtained on the
FR 3064b. The Board has determined to
release this information both because it
can already be determined
mathematically based on the
information the Board currently releases
on average interchange fees and because
the Board believes the release of such
information may be useful to issuers
and merchants in choosing payment
card networks in which to particulate
and to policymakers in assessing the
effect of Regulation II on the level of
interchange fees received by issuers
over time.
The remaining individual issuer and
payment card information collected on
these surveys is kept confidential under
exemption (b)(4) of the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) because, if
released, this information would cause
substantial harm to the competitive
position of the survey respondents.6
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, August 7, 2019.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2019–17186 Filed 8–9–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210–01–P
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Announcement of Board
Approval Under Delegated Authority
and Submission to OMB
Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System.
SUMMARY: The Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System (Board) is
adopting a proposal to extend for three
AGENCY:
4 15
U.S.C. 1693o–2(a)(3)(B).
5 Id.
2 15
U.S.C. 1693o–2.
subsection refers to bi-annual disclosures
and the Board interprets this to mean once every
two years. See 76 FR 43458.
3 The
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:16 Aug 09, 2019
Jkt 247001
6 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4) (exempting from disclosure
‘‘trade secrets and commercial or financial
information obtained from a person and privileged
or confidential’’).
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39849
years, without revision, the Investment
in Bank Premises Notification (FR 4014;
OMB No. 7100–0139).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Federal Reserve Board Clearance
Officer—Nuha Elmaghrabi—Office of
the Chief Data Officer, Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, Washington, DC 20551, (202)
452–3829.
Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) Desk Officer—Shagufta Ahmed—
Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, Office of Management and
Budget, New Executive Office Building,
Room 10235, 725 17th Street NW,
Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to (202)
395–6974.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June
15, 1984, OMB delegated to the Board
authority under the Paperwork
Reduction Act (PRA) to approve and
assign OMB control numbers to
collection of information requests and
requirements conducted or sponsored
by the Board. Board-approved
collections of information are
incorporated into the official OMB
inventory of currently approved
collections of information. Copies of the
PRA Submission, supporting statements
and approved collection of information
instrument(s) are placed into OMB’s
public docket files. The Board may not
conduct or sponsor, and the respondent
is not required to respond to, an
information collection that has been
extended, revised, or implemented on or
after October 1, 1995, unless it displays
a currently valid OMB control number.
Final Approval Under OMB Delegated
Authority of the Extension for Three
Years, Without Revision, of the
Following Information Collection
Report title: Investment in Bank
Premises Notification.
Agency form number: FR 4014.
OMB control number: 7100–0139.
Frequency: Event-generated.
Respondents: State member banks.
Estimated number of respondents: 15.
Estimated average hours per response:
30 minutes.
Estimated annual burden hours: 8.
General description of report: The
Federal Reserve Act (FRA) and the
Board’s Regulation H require a state
member bank to seek the prior approval
of the appropriate Federal Reserve Bank
before making an investment in bank
premises that exceeds certain
thresholds. There is no required
reporting form (the FR 4014 designation
is for internal purposes only), and each
request for prior approval must be filed
with the Reserve Bank that has direct
supervisory responsibility for the
requesting state member bank.
E:\FR\FM\12AUN1.SGM
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 155 (Monday, August 12, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39847-39849]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-17186]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
Proposed Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment
Request
AGENCY: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
ACTION: Notice, request for comment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board)
invites comment on a proposal to extend for three years, with revision,
the Interchange Transaction Fees Survey (FR 3064; OMB No. 7100-0344).
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before October 11, 2019.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by FR 3064, by any of
the following methods:
Agency Website: https://www.federalreserve.gov/. Follow
the instructions for submitting comments at https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/foia/proposedregs.aspx.
Email: [email protected]. Include the OMB
number in the subject line of the message.
FAX: (202) 452-3819 or (202) 452-3102.
[[Page 39848]]
Mail: Ann E. Misback, Secretary, Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System, 20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20551.
All public comments are available from the Board's website at
https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/foia/proposedregs.aspx as
submitted, unless modified for technical reasons or to remove
personally identifiable information at the commenter's request.
Accordingly, comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or
contact information. Public comments may also be viewed electronically
or in paper in Room 146, 1709 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006,
between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. For security reasons, the
Board requires that visitors make an appointment to inspect comments.
You may do so by calling (202) 452-3684. Upon arrival, visitors will be
required to present valid government-issued photo identification and to
submit to security screening in order to inspect and photocopy
comments.
Additionally, commenters may send a copy of their comments to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Desk Officer--Shagufta Ahmed--
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and
Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, 725 17th Street NW,
Washington, DC 20503, or by fax to (202) 395-6974.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A copy of the Paperwork Reduction Act
(PRA) OMB submission, including the reporting form and instructions,
supporting statement, and other documentation will be placed into OMB's
public docket files, if approved. These documents will also be made
available on the Board's public website at https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/reportforms/review.aspx or may be requested
from the agency clearance officer, whose name appears below.
Federal Reserve Board Clearance Officer--Nuha Elmaghrabi--Office of
the Chief Data Officer, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, Washington, DC 20551, (202) 452-3829.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 15, 1984, OMB delegated to the Board
authority under the PRA to approve and assign OMB control numbers to
collections of information conducted or sponsored by the Board. In
exercising this delegated authority, the Board is directed to take
every reasonable step to solicit comment. In determining whether to
approve a collection of information, the Board will consider all
comments received from the public and other agencies.
Request for Comment on Information Collection Proposal
The Board invites public comment on the following information
collection, which is being reviewed under authority delegated by the
OMB under the PRA. Comments are invited on the following:
a. Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for
the proper performance of the Board's functions, including whether the
information has practical utility;
b. The accuracy of the Board's estimate of the burden of the
proposed information collection, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
c. Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected;
d. Ways to minimize the burden of information collection on
respondents, including through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information technology; and
e. Estimates of capital or startup costs and costs of operation,
maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information.
At the end of the comment period, the comments and recommendations
received will be analyzed to determine the extent to which the Board
should modify the proposal.
Proposal under OMB Delegated Authority to Extend for Three Years,
With Revision, the Following Information Collection:
Report title: Interchange Transaction Fees Survey.
Agency form number: FR 3064.
OMB control number: 7100-0344.
Frequency: Annually.
Respondents: Debit card issuers and payment card networks.
Estimated number of respondents: FR 3064a, 541 respondents; and FR
3064b, 15 respondents.
Estimated average hours per response: FR 3064a, 160 hours; and FR
3064b, 75 hours.
Estimated annual burden hours: FR 3064a, 86,560 hours; and FR
3064b, 1,125 hours.
General description of report: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) requires the Board
to disclose, at least every two years, such aggregate or summary
information concerning the costs incurred for, and interchange
transaction fees received by, issuers with respect to debit card
transactions as the Board considers appropriate or in the public
interest. The data from these surveys are used in fulfilling that
disclosure requirement. In addition, the Board uses data from the
payment card network survey (FR 3064b) to publicly report on an annual
basis the extent to which networks have established separate
interchange fees for exempt and covered issuers.\1\ Finally, the Board
uses the data from these surveys in determining whether to propose
revisions to the interchange fee standards in Debit Card Interchange
Fees and Routing (Regulation II) (12 CFR part 235). The Dodd-Frank Act
provides the Board with authority to require debit card issuers and
payment card networks to submit information in order to carry out
provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act regarding interchange fee standards.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Average debit card interchange fee by payment card network
https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/regii-average-interchange-fee.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Proposed revisions: The Board proposes the following revisions to
the FR 3064a:
Remove breakout of interchange fees reimbursed to acquirers as a
result of chargebacks or returns (Section II, III, IV, and V, Question
6b.1 and 6b.2). Currently, debit card issuers are asked to break out
separately the amount of interchange fees reimbursed to acquirers as a
result of chargebacks and returns, as well as the total amount of
interchange fees reimbursed to acquirers as a result of chargebacks or
returns. Because only the total amount of interchange fees reimbursed
to acquirers is needed to compute the net interchange fee revenue
received by an issuer, the Board proposes deleting questions 6b.1 and
6b.2.
Add tokenization as an option for fraud prevention activity
(Section II, III, IV, and V, Question 5c). The existing fraud
prevention activities that an issuer has the option to select are
transaction monitoring, merchant blocking, data security, and PIN
customization. The Board views tokenization as an important emerging
fraud prevention technique and proposes to add it the current list.
Update Survey Instructions and Glossary of Terms. The Board is
proposing to add language in the instructions to address the situation
where a debit card issuer has become newly covered by the interchange
fee standards in the year that the survey is being conducted, after not
having been covered in the previous year. The new language clarifies
that such an issuer does not need to file a report with information for
the previous calendar year, when it was not covered by the interchange
fee standards. The Board is
[[Page 39849]]
also proposing updates to definitions in the survey glossary to provide
more clarity.
The Board proposes the following revisions to the FR 3064b:
Remove question about number of merchant establishments (Section I,
Question 5). Because information about the number of locations at which
merchants accept payments on the respondent's network is not used in
the Board's analysis, the Board is proposing to delete the question.
Remove question about offering an interchange fee schedules that
differentiates between exempt and non-exempt issuers (Section I,
Question 6). This question was originally included to enable the Board
to establish whether payment card networks were offering interchange
fee schedules that differentiate between issuers based on their status
under Regulation II. The existence of such differential fee schedules
has been established and can further be inferred from responses to
subsequent questions in the survey. As a result, the Board is proposing
to remove the question.
Remove questions about refunds of interchange fees to acquirers for
chargebacks and returns (Section II, Question 2b, 2b.1, 2b.2, 2c, 2c.1,
2c.2, 2d, 2d.1, 2d.2, 2e, 2e.1, and 2e.2). Currently, the survey poses
a series of yes/no questions asking payment card networks if they
refund to acquirers the ad valorem component, fixed per-transaction
component, or the entire interchange fee for returns and chargebacks
that compose an entire purchase transaction or a portion of it. These
questions were originally included to address a series of issues that
now have been resolved, so the Board is proposing to remove them.
Update Survey Instructions and Glossary of Terms. The Board is
proposing additional language in the instructions to clarify reporting
expectations for entities who own multiple networks. The Board is also
proposing updates to definitions in the survey glossary to provide more
clarity.
Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR 3064 is authorized
by subsection 920(a) of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, which was
amended by section 1075(a) of the Dodd-Frank Act.\2\ This statutory
provision requires the Board, at least once every two years,\3\ to
disclose aggregate or summary information concerning the costs incurred
and interchange transaction fees charged or received, by issuers or
payment card networks in connection with the authorization, clearance
or settlement of electronic debit transaction as the Board considers
appropriate and in the public interest.\4\ It also provides the Board
with authority to require issuers and payment card networks to provide
information to enable the Board to carry out the provisions of the
subsection.\5\ The FR 3064 is mandatory. In accordance with the
statutory requirement, the Board releases aggregate or summary
information from the survey responses. In addition, the Board releases,
at the network level, the percentage of total number of transactions,
the percentage of total value of transactions, and the average
transaction value for exempt and not-exempt issuers obtained on the FR
3064b. The Board has determined to release this information both
because it can already be determined mathematically based on the
information the Board currently releases on average interchange fees
and because the Board believes the release of such information may be
useful to issuers and merchants in choosing payment card networks in
which to particulate and to policymakers in assessing the effect of
Regulation II on the level of interchange fees received by issuers over
time.
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\2\ 15 U.S.C. 1693o-2.
\3\ The subsection refers to bi-annual disclosures and the Board
interprets this to mean once every two years. See 76 FR 43458.
\4\ 15 U.S.C. 1693o-2(a)(3)(B).
\5\ Id.
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The remaining individual issuer and payment card information
collected on these surveys is kept confidential under exemption (b)(4)
of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because, if released, this
information would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of
the survey respondents.\6\
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\6\ 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4) (exempting from disclosure ``trade
secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a
person and privileged or confidential'').
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, August 7,
2019.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2019-17186 Filed 8-9-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210-01-P
