Proposed Collection; Comment Request, 12448-12464 [2021-04316]

Agencies

• FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 3, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12448-12464]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-04316]


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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[No. 2021-N-3]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION: Federal Home Loan Bank Director--60-day notice of submission of 
information collection for approval from Office of Management and 
Budget.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA or the 
Agency) is seeking public comments concerning an information collection 
known as ``Federal Home Loan Bank Directors,'' which has been assigned 
control number 2590-0006 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 
FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and 
approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due 
to expire on February 28, 2021.

DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before May 3, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: `Federal Home Loan Bank Directors, (No. 
2021-N-3)''' by any of the following methods:
     Agency Website: www.fhfa.gov/open-for-comment-or-input.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your 
comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email 
to FHFA at [email protected] to ensure timely receipt by the agency.
     Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Eighth 
Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: ``Federal Home Loan Bank Directors, (No. 
2021-N-3).''
    We will post all public comments we receive without change, 
including any personal information you provide, such as your name and 
address, email address, and telephone number, on the FHFA website at 
https://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will 
be available for examination by the public through the electronic 
comment docket for this PRA Notice also located on the FHFA website.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Vickie Olafson, Assistant General 
Counsel, [email protected], (202) 649-3025; or Angela 
Supervielle, Counsel, [email protected], (202) 649-3973 
(these are not toll-free numbers); Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219. The Telecommunications Device 
for the Deaf is (800) 877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Need for and Use of the Information Collection

    Section 7 of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) vests the 
management of each Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank) in its board of 
directors.\1\ As required by section 7, each Bank's board comprises two 
types of directors: (1) Member directors, who are drawn from the 
officers and directors of member institutions located in the Bank's 
district and who are elected to represent members in a particular state 
in that district; and (2) independent directors, who are unaffiliated 
with any of the Bank's member institutions, but who reside in the 
Bank's district and are

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elected on an at-large basis.\2\ Both types of directors serve four-
year terms, which are staggered so that approximately one-quarter of a 
Bank's total directorships are up for election every year.\3\ Section 7 
and FHFA's implementing regulation, codified at 12 CFR part 1261, 
establish the eligibility requirements for both types of Bank directors 
and the professional qualifications for independent directors, and set 
forth the procedures for their election.
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    \1\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(1).
    \2\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(b) and (d).
    \3\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(d).
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    Part 1261 of the regulations requires that each Bank administer its 
own annual director election process. As part of this process, a Bank 
must require each nominee for both types of directorship, including any 
incumbent that may be a candidate for re-election, to complete and 
return to the Bank a form that solicits information about the 
candidate's statutory eligibility to serve and, in the case of 
independent director candidates, about his or her professional 
qualifications for the directorship being sought.\4\ Specifically, 
member director candidates are required to complete the Federal Home 
Loan Bank Member Director Eligibility Certification Form (Member 
Director Eligibility Certification Form), while independent director 
candidates must complete the Federal Home Loan Bank Independent 
Director Application Form (Independent Director Application Form). Each 
Bank must also require all of its incumbent directors to certify 
annually that they continue to meet all eligibility requirements.\5\ 
Member directors do this by completing the Member Director Eligibility 
Certification Form again every year, while independent directors 
complete the abbreviated Federal Home Loan Bank Independent Director 
Annual Certification Form (Independent Director Annual Certification 
Form) to certify their ongoing eligibility.
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    \4\ See 12 CFR 1261.7(c) and (f); 12 CFR 1261.14(b).
    \5\ See 12 CFR 1261.12.
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    The Banks use the information collection contained in the 
Independent Director Application Form and part 1261 to determine 
whether individuals who wish to stand for election or re-election as 
independent directors satisfy the statutory eligibility requirements 
and possess the professional qualifications required under the statute 
and regulations. Only individuals meeting those requirements and 
qualifications may serve as an independent director.\6\ On an annual 
basis, the Banks use the information collection contained in the 
Independent Director Annual Certification Form and part 1261 to 
determine whether its incumbent independent directors continue to meet 
the statutory eligibility requirements. The Banks use the information 
collection contained in the Member Director Eligibility Certification 
Form and part 1261 to determine whether individuals who wish to stand 
for election or re-election as member directors satisfy the statutory 
eligibility requirements. Only individuals meeting these requirements 
may serve as a member director.\7\ On an annual basis, the Banks also 
use the information collection contained in the Member Director 
Eligibility Certification Form and part 1261 to determine whether its 
incumbent member directors continue to meet the statutory eligibility 
requirements.
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    \6\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(3).
    \7\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(3) and (b)(1).
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    The OMB control number for this information collection is 2590-
0006. The current clearance for the information collection expired on 
February 28, 2021. The likely respondents are individuals who are 
prospective and incumbent Bank directors.

B. Revisions to the Existing Bank Director Forms

    In advance of the 2021 Bank director election cycle, FHFA is 
revising each of the three Bank Director Application and Certification 
forms, all of which have existed in substantially their current form 
since the current statutory requirements for Bank directors were 
adopted in 2008.
    The Independent Director Application Form, by far the longest of 
the three forms at eight pages and requiring a number of essay-type 
answers, is completed by all independent directorship nominees, 
including incumbents seeking re-nomination. The information requested 
on the form is intended to confirm that the nominee is legally eligible 
to serve as an independent director, has the required professional 
qualifications for the type of independent directorship being sought, 
and is of high personal integrity and to identify any potential 
conflicts of interest of which the Bank should be aware. The proposed 
revisions would tie the questions more closely to statutory and 
regulatory requirements, provide more structured answer choices so as 
to ensure responses are relevant, solicit more comprehensive 
information on issues about which the Bank must weigh facts to make a 
legal judgment about the nominee's eligibility, and move most 
instructions to a separate sheet and otherwise streamline the 
questions. The revisions should allow nominees to complete the form 
more quickly by providing preset answer choices for many questions, 
permitting attachments in answer to certain questions, and eliminating 
some superfluous questions. FHFA estimates that, in addition to 
encouraging more accurate and complete answers, the revisions will 
reduce the amount of time it takes a nominee to complete the form from 
three to two hours.
    The Independent Director Annual Certification Form, which runs two 
pages including instruction, is completed by incumbent independent 
directors annually to certify that they remain legally eligible to 
serve. The existing form provides independent directors with the option 
merely to check a box stating that ``no changes have occurred'' with 
respect to the director's compliance with the statutory eligibility 
requirements. In the Agency's view, providing this option has resulted 
in some independent directors overlooking changes in residence or 
employment that might render them ineligible to continue to serve. As 
revised, the form would require independent directors to provide 
current information on residence and employment to allow the Bank to 
determine whether there may be new information leading to eligibility 
concerns.
    The Member Director Eligibility Certification Form, which includes 
one-and-a-half pages of questions and two pages of instructions 
(reflecting the fact that the form is used for multiple purposes), is 
completed both by nominees running for a member directorship and 
annually by incumbent member directors to certify their continuing 
eligibility. The form is designed to confirm that member directors and 
member directorship nominees are legally eligible to serve in the 
directorship positions they occupy or are seeking. Although some 
questions on the form will be revised to provide preset answers, the 
substance of questions on the revised form will remain essentially the 
same as those on the existing form. The Member Director Eligibility 
Certification Form was most recently revised in August 2020 to remove a 
notarization requirement (neither of the other two Bank director forms 
had such a requirement).
    The revised questions, including preset answer selections, and 
instructions for each of the Bank director forms appear at the end of 
this notice. The final formatting of the revised forms has yet to be 
determined.

[[Page 12450]]

C. Burden Estimate

    FHFA estimates the total annual hour burden imposed upon 
respondents by the three Bank director forms comprising this 
information collection to be 119 hours (39 hours + 50 hours + 30 hours 
= 119 hours, as detailed below).
    The Agency estimates the total annual hour burden on all member 
director candidates and incumbent member directors associated with 
review and completion of the Member Director Eligibility Certification 
Form to be 39 hours. This includes a total annual average of 72 member 
director nominees (24 open seats per year with three nominees for each) 
completing the form as an application, with 1 response per nominee 
taking an average of 15 minutes (.25 hours) (72 respondents x .25 hours 
= 18 hours). It also includes a total annual average of 84 incumbent 
member directors not up for election completing the form as an annual 
certification, with 1 response per individual taking an average of 15 
minutes (.25 hours) (84 individuals x .25 hours = 21 hours).
    The Agency estimates the total annual hour burden on all 
independent director candidates associated with review and completion 
of the Independent Director Application Form to be 50 hours. This 
includes a total annual average of 25 independent director candidates 
(22 open seats per year, plus three vacancies, with one nominee for 
each), with 1 response per individual taking an average of 2.0 hours 
(25 individuals x 2.0 hours = 50 hours).
    The Agency estimates the total annual hour burden on all incumbent 
independent directors associated with review and completion of the 
Independent Director Annual Certification Form to be 30 hours. This 
includes a total annual average of 60 incumbent independent directors 
not up for election, with 1 response per individual taking an average 
of 30 minutes (.5 hours) (60 individuals x .5 hours = 30 hours).

D. Comments Request

    FHFA requests written comments on the following: (1) Whether the 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of FHFA's estimates of the burdens of the 
collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, 
and clarity of the information collected; and (4) ways to minimize the 
burden of the collection of information on respondents, including 
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.

Kevin Smith,
Chief Information Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P

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[FR Doc. 2021-04316 Filed 3-2-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-C