Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board Approval Under Delegated Authority and Submission to OMB, 83555-83556 [2020-28218]

Agencies

• FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 246 (Tuesday, December 22, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 83555-83556]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-28218]


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FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM


Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board 
Approval Under Delegated Authority and Submission to OMB

AGENCY: 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 
Reports of Deposits (FR 2900, FR 2915; OMB No. 7100-0087). The 
revisions to the weekly collection of the FR 2900 are effective for the 
report as-of-date April 12, 2021. The revisions to the FR 2915 are 
applicable for the report as-of-date June 21, 2021. The quarterly 
collection of the FR 2900 and the FR 2910a are discontinued as of 
January 1, 2021. The final quarterly submission of the FR 2900 is for 
the as-of-date December 21, 2020, while the last FR 2910a was submitted 
on June 30, 2020. The FR 2930 is also being discontinued, effective 
January 31, 2021; the last filing of this report is for January 14, 
2021.

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 PRA to approve and assign OMB control numbers to 
collections of information conducted or sponsored by the Board. Board-
approved collections of information are incorporated into the official 
OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. The OMB 
inventory, as well as copies of the PRA Submission, supporting 
statements, and approved collection of information instrument(s) are 
available at https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. These documents 
are also available on the Federal Reserve 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 above.

Final Approval Under OMB Delegated Authority of the Extension for Three 
Years, With Revision, of the Following Information Collection

    Report title: Reports of Deposits.
    Agency form number: FR 2900 and FR 2915.
    OMB control number: 7100-0087.
    Effective dates: FR 2900 (weekly): April 12, 2021; FR 2900 
(quarterly): January 1, 2021; FR 2910a: January 1, 2021; FR 2915: June 
21, 2021; FR 2930: January 31, 2021.
    Frequency: Quarterly and weekly.
    Respondents: Depository institutions.
    Estimated number of respondents: FR 2900: 1,000; FR 2915: 116.
    Estimated average hours per response: FR 2900: 1.0; FR 2915: 0.5.
    Estimated annual burden hours: FR 2900: 52,000; FR 2915: 232.
    General description of report: Data from these mandatory reports 
are used by the Board to support the calculation and analysis of the 
U.S. monetary aggregates and to meet the Board's obligations under 
Section 19(b) of the Federal Reserve Act to index key thresholds used 
in the calculation of reserve requirements. The FR 2900 is the primary 
source of data for the construction and analysis of the monetary 
aggregates and was used until recently for the calculation of reserve 
requirements. FR 2900 respondents that offer deposits denominated in 
foreign currencies at their U.S. offices file the FR 2915. Foreign 
currency deposits are not included in the monetary aggregates, and the 
FR 2915 data are used to net foreign currency-denominated deposits from 
the FR 2900 data to exclude them from measures of the monetary 
aggregates.
    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR 2900 and FR 2915 
reports are authorized to be collected from depository institutions 
(commercial banks, credit unions, and savings and loan associations) 
pursuant to section 11(a)(2) of the Federal Reserve Act (FRA); from 
agreement corporations pursuant to sections 25(5) and (7) and section 
604a of the FRA; from banking Edge corporations pursuant to section 
25A(17) of the FRA; and from branches and agencies of foreign banks 
pursuant to section 7 of the International Banking Act. The FR 2900 and 
FR 2915 reports are mandatory.
    The data collected under the FR 2900 and FR 2915 reports are 
considered

[[Page 83556]]

confidential commercial and financial information, and respondents are 
assured that the data being collected will be treated as confidential 
by the Federal Reserve (except that aggregate data, which does not 
identify any individual institution, may be disclosed). Accordingly, 
the data collected on these reports is considered confidential pursuant 
to exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, which protects 
confidential commercial or financial information from public 
disclosure.
    Current actions: On September 2, 2020, the Board published a notice 
in the Federal Register (85 FR 54577) requesting public comment for 60 
days on the extension, with revision, of the Report of Deposits. The 
notice proposed discontinuing the collection of the FR 2910a and FR 
2930, ceasing the quarterly collection of the FR 2900, and refocusing 
items on the weekly collection of the FR 2900 and the quarterly 
collection of the FR 2915 to those that support the construction and 
analysis of the monetary aggregates. The comment period for this notice 
expired on November 2, 2020. The Board received five comments.

Detailed Discussion of Public Comments

    Of the five comments, three were from depository institutions, one 
was from a trade association, and one was from a federal agency. The 
public comments sought clarification of the proposed changes, which the 
Board has addressed below and, in some cases, through amendments to the 
FR 2900 instructions described below.
    One depository institution asked for more information on the 
reporting requirements for U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. 
As noted in the proposal, the Board plans to maintain its current 
practice of requiring banking Edge and agreement corporations and U.S. 
branches and agencies of foreign banks to report weekly on the FR 2900, 
regardless of size, because the deposit flows of these institutions are 
large enough and different enough from those of other depository 
institutions that weekly reporting of data is needed to support the 
construction of monetary aggregates.
    Another depository institution requested clarification on the 
proposal's treatment of the reporting of demand deposit items: A.1.a, 
demand deposits due to depository institutions; A.1.b, demand deposits 
due to the U.S. government; and A.1.c, demand deposits due to other. 
The Board will discontinue collecting items A.1.a and A.1.b, and will 
renumber and rename A.1.c to ``A.1, Demand deposits due to the public 
(excluding demand deposits due to depository institutions and demand 
deposits due to the U.S. government).''
    The third depository institution requested clarification of the 
effective date of the proposed changes. The effective dates of the 
proposed changes vary by report form and are detailed above and in the 
Proposed Revisions section of the Supporting Statement for the Reports 
of Deposits that accompanied the Board's request for public comment.
    The fourth comment letter was from a trade association. The 
commenter provided one suggestion and made four requests for 
clarification on the proposal. The commenter suggested the Board do 
more to align items reported on the FR 2900, FR Y-9C, and FR 2886b 
reports, as well as on the Call Reports, to reduce burden on reporters. 
In the development of the proposal, the Board evaluated the interaction 
of the proposed changes to the FR 2900 with other report forms. The 
Board did not find it appropriate, however, to continue to collect 
items on the FR 2900 that are no longer needed for the Board's 
purposes, even if discontinuing those items led to some lack of 
alignment with other report forms, such as the Call Report. The same 
commenter also asked the Board to amend the FR 2900 instructions to 
include guidance on how to report retail sweep arrangements. The final 
version of the FR 2900 instructions includes such guidance. The 
commenter also requested that the Board specify whether personal or 
nonpersonal ineligible acceptances and obligations issued by affiliates 
and maturing in more than seven days should be included on the proposed 
annual item E.1 Reservable Liabilities. The instructions have been 
amended to specify that only the nonpersonal portion of ineligible 
acceptances and obligations issued by affiliates and maturing in more 
than seven days should be included. The commenter also sought 
confirmation on the treatment of savings deposits in Regulation CC 
(Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks, 12 CFR part 229) as a 
result of the recent amendments to Regulation D. Because Regulation CC 
continues to exclude accounts described in 12 CFR 204.2(d)(2) from the 
Regulation CC ``account'' definition, the recent amendments to 
Regulation D did not result in savings deposits (accounts described in 
12 CFR 204.2(d)(2)) being covered by Regulation CC. Lastly, the 
commenter requested that the Board clarify its expectations of 
reporters for explaining movements in data, which the commenter noted 
can be very burdensome. The Board continues to expect Federal Reserve 
System staff to work with reporters to explain movements in data and 
submit revisions if necessary to ensure data quality while remaining 
sensitive to minimizing such requests where feasible.
    The fifth and final comment was from a U.S. government agency. The 
agency raised concerns that the elimination of total transaction 
accounts, deductions from transaction accounts, and ineligible 
acceptances and obligations issued by affiliates and maturing in seven 
days from the FR 2900 would affect their data production. These 
concerns have been addressed.
    The Board has also considered the continued collection of FR 2900 
reports from bankers' banks and corporate credit unions (CCUs).\1\ Data 
reported on the FR 2900 by bankers' banks and CCUs have historically 
been used to administer reserve requirements, but not for the 
construction of the monetary aggregates. The monetary aggregates 
measure money in the hands of the nonbank public in the United States. 
Deposits at bankers' banks and CCUs represent funds of depository 
institutions and not nonbank depositors, and therefore data regarding 
these deposits have historically been excluded from construction of the 
monetary aggregates. As noted above, all reserve requirement ratios 
have been set to zero percent since March 2020. Because FR 2900 report 
data from bankers' banks and CCUs will not be used for either 
administration of reserve requirements or construction of the monetary 
aggregates, the Board has determined to discontinue collecting FR 2900 
reports from these institutions.\2\
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    \1\ Currently, nine bankers' banks and eleven corporate credit 
unions submit FR 2900 reports weekly, and three bankers' banks 
submit the FR 2900 quarterly. The revisions to this information 
collection, as originally proposed, would likely affect four of 
these institutions and these institutions would be required to 
submit FR 2900 reports weekly.
    \2\ The last report as-of-date for bankers' banks and CCUs that 
file the FR 2900 weekly is April 5, 2021; for FR 2900 quarterly 
filers, the last report as-of-date is December 21, 2020.

    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, December 17, 
2020.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Deputy Associate Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2020-28218 Filed 12-21-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210-01-P