Proposed Collection; Comment Request, 37330-37332 [2021-15091]

Agencies

• FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 133 (Thursday, July 15, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37330-37332]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-15091]


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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[No. 2021-N-8]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION: 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 ``Minority and Women Inclusion,'' which has been assigned 
control number 2590-0014 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 October 31, 2021.

DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before September 
13, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: ``Minority and Women Inclusion, (No. 2021-
N-8)'' 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, 400 
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: ``Minority and Women Inclusion, (No. 2021-
N-8)''.
    We will post all public comments we receive without change, 
including any

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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 on business days between the 
hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219. To make an appointment to 
inspect comments, please call the Office of General Counsel at (202) 
649-3804.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Felicia Bland, Supervisory Examination 
Specialist, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, 
[email protected], or by telephone at (202) 365-7471; 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: FHFA is seeking comments on its collection 
of information regarding the minority and gender classification of 
individuals serving on the boards of directors of the Federal Home Loan 
Banks (Banks) and of the Office of Finance under FHFA's regulations on 
Minority and Women Inclusion (MWI), codified at 12 CFR part 1223, which 
it will soon be submitting for renewal of the OMB control number under 
the PRA.

A. Need for and Use of the Information Collection

    The Federal Home Loan Bank System consists of eleven regional Banks 
and the Office of Finance, which issues and services the Banks' debt 
securities. The Banks are wholesale financial institutions, organized 
under authority of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) to serve 
the public interest by enhancing the availability of residential 
housing finance and community lending credit through their member 
institutions and, to a limited extent, through certain eligible non-
member entities. Each Bank is structured as a regional cooperative that 
is owned and controlled by member financial institutions located within 
its district, which are also its primary customers. The Bank Act vests 
the management of each Bank in a board of directors that consists of 
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 elected on an at-large basis.\1\ The Office of 
Finance is also governed by a board of directors, which consists of the 
presidents of the eleven Banks and five independent directors.\2\
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    \1\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(1), (b), (d).
    \2\ See 12 CFR 1273.7(a).
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    Section 1319A of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety 
and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act) requires that each 
of the Banks establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) 
to be responsible for all matters relating to diversity in its 
management, employment, and business activities, in accordance with 
requirements established by FHFA.\3\ Section 1319A also requires that 
each Bank implement standards and procedures to ensure, to the maximum 
extent possible, the inclusion and utilization of women and minorities 
``at all levels'' of its business and activities, and submit an annual 
report to FHFA detailing actions taken to achieve those goals.\4\
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    \3\ See 12 U.S.C. 4520(a).
    \4\ See 12 U.S.C. 4520(b), (d).
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    FHFA's MWI regulations implement those statutory requirements and 
also extend the requirements to the Office of Finance. The MWI 
regulations require generally that each Bank and the Office of Finance 
``develop, implement, and maintain policies and procedures to ensure, 
to the maximum extent possible in balance with financially safe and 
sound business practices, the inclusion and utilization of minorities, 
women, individuals with disabilities, and minority-, women-, and 
disabled-owned businesses in all business and activities and at all 
levels of the regulated entity, including in management, employment, 
procurement, insurance, and all types of contracts.'' \5\ In 
recognition of the fact that each Bank is required by statute to 
promote diversity and inclusion ``at all levels'' of its business and 
activities, the MWI regulations further require that the Banks' 
policies and procedures (as well as those of the Office of Finance) 
``[e]ncourage the consideration of diversity in nominating or 
soliciting nominees for positions on boards of directors and engage in 
recruiting and outreach directed at encouraging individuals who are 
minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities to seek or apply 
for employment with the regulated entity.'' \6\
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    \5\ See 12 CFR 1223.21(b).
    \6\ See 12 CFR 1223.21(b)(7).
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    In conformity with the statutory requirements, FHFA's MWI 
regulations require that each Bank and the Office of Finance submit to 
FHFA an annual report describing, among other things, its efforts to 
promote diversity at all levels of management and employment, and the 
results of those efforts.\7\ In order to provide a quantitative basis 
upon which to assess the results of those efforts, FHFA's MWI 
regulations require that each Bank and the Office of Finance set forth 
in their respective annual reports the demographic data reported on the 
EEO-1 form, which they are required to file annually with the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).\8\ The EEO-1 form requires 
that each respondent provide race, ethnicity and gender information for 
its employees, broken down into various job categories. Because the 
EEO-1 form does not require that a respondent provide information on 
board directors, FHFA cannot use the EEO-1 data to assess the 
effectiveness of the Federal Home Loan Bank System's efforts to 
``encourage the consideration of diversity in nominating or soliciting 
nominees for positions on boards of directors.''
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    \7\ See 12 CFR 1223.22(a).
    \8\ See 12 CFR 1223.23(b)(1). As required by 29 CFR 1602.7, each 
Bank and the Office of Finance annually files an EEO-1 form with the 
EEOC.
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    Therefore, in order to enable FHFA to assess those efforts, the MWI 
regulations separately require that the annual reports set forth 
``[d]ata showing for the reporting year by minority and gender 
classification, the number of individuals on the board of directors of 
each Bank and the Office of Finance,'' using the same racial and ethnic 
classifications that are used on the EEO-1 form (which comply with 
OMB's ``Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards 
for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting'').\9\ The MWI 
regulations require that each Bank and the Office of Finance collect 
that data ``through an information collection requesting each 
director's voluntary self-identification of his or her minority and 
gender classification without personally identifiable information.'' 
\10\
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    \9\ See 12 CFR 1223.23(b)(10)(i).
    \10\ See 12 CFR 1223.23(b)(10)(i)(A).
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    FHFA uses the information collected under this control number to 
assess the effectiveness of the policies and procedures that each Bank 
and the Office of Finance is required to implement to promote diversity 
in all of its business and activities ``at all levels'' and, 
specifically, to encourage diversity in the nomination and solicitation 
of nominees for members of its boards of directors. FHFA also uses the 
information to establish a baseline to

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analyze future trends related to the diversity of the boards of 
directors of the Banks and the Office of Finance and to assess the 
effectiveness of the strategies developed by the Banks and the Office 
of Finance for promoting, developing, and retaining diverse board 
talent.

B. Burden Estimate

    FHFA estimates the total annual hour burden imposed upon 
respondents by this information collection to be 20.5 hours. This is 
based on estimates that 205 Bank and Office of Finance Directors will 
respond annually, with each response taking an average of 0.1 hours (6 
minutes) (205 respondents x 0.1 hours = 20.5 hours).

C. 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 estimate of the burden 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.
[FR Doc. 2021-15091 Filed 7-14-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P