Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Reports of Transactions With Foreign Financial Agencies, 1479-1484 [2022-00332]
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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 7 / Tuesday, January 11, 2022 / Notices
The grant agreement is an agreement
between DOT and the recipient. In the
grant agreement, the recipient must
describe the project that DOT agreed to
fund, which is typically the project that
was described in the application or a
reduced-scope version of that project.
The grant agreement must also include
a detailed breakdown of the project
schedule and a budget listing all major
activities that will be completed as part
of the project.
Project Management Stage
The reporting requirements under this
stage are necessary to ensure the proper
and timely expenditure of federal funds
within the scope of the approved
project. The requirements comply with
the Common Grant Rule, and are also
included in sections of the grant
agreement. During the project
management stage, the grantee will
complete Quarterly Progress and
Monitoring Reports to ensure that the
project budget and schedule will be
maintained to the maximum extent
possible, that the project will be
completed with the highest degree of
quality, and that compliance with
Federal regulations will be met. The
substantive requirements of the report
include: The project’s overall status;
project significant activities and issues;
action items/outstanding issues; project
scope overview; project schedule;
project cost; an SF–425 Federal
Financial Report; and certifications.
This reporting requirement will greatly
reduce the need for on-site visits by
staff.
Project Evaluation Stage
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The reporting requirement under this
stage is necessary to assess the longterm impact of the project by comparing
the baseline data provided in the data
collection plan as required in the
application to project data collected
during the five (5) years after project
completion. This electronic spreadsheet
report is collected once, at least five (5)
years after project completion from
grantees to help measure the
effectiveness of the grants as a program.
Information provided will allow the
Government to analyze project
performance.
Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act
of 1995; 44 U.S.C. chapter 35, as amended;
and 49 CFR 1:48.
Issued in Washington, DC.
John Augustine,
Director, Office of Infrastructure Finance and
Innovation, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022–00334 Filed 1–10–22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–9X–P
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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
1479
reporting requirement in detail will not
be considered to contain confidential
information.
The
FinCEN Regulatory Support Section at
1–800–767–2825 or electronically at
frc@fincen.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Proposed Renewal;
Comment Request; Renewal Without
Change of Reports of Transactions
With Foreign Financial Agencies
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network (FinCEN), Treasury.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
I. Statutory and Regulatory Provisions
AGENCY:
As part of its continuing effort
to reduce paperwork and respondent
burden, FinCEN invites comments on
the proposed renewal, without change,
of a currently approved information
collection found in existing Bank
Secrecy Act regulations. Specifically,
the regulations authorize the Secretary
of the Treasury, as appropriate, to
promulgate regulations requiring
specified financial institutions to file
reports with the Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network of certain
transactions with designated foreign
financial agencies. Although no changes
are proposed to the information
collection itself, this request for
comments covers a future expansion of
the scope of the annual hourly burden
and cost estimate associated with these
regulations. This request for comments
is made pursuant to the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Written comments are welcome,
and must be received on or before
March 14, 2022
ADDRESSES: Comments may be
submitted by any of the following
methods:
• Federal E-rulemaking Portal: https://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
Refer to Docket Number FINCEN–2022–
0001 and the specific Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) control
number 1506–0055.
• Mail: Policy Division, Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network, P.O. Box
39, Vienna, VA 22183. Refer to Docket
Number FINCEN–2022–0001 and OMB
control number 1506–0055.
Please submit comments by one
method only. Comments will generally
become a matter of public record. For
this reason, please do not include in
your comments information of a
confidential nature, such as sensitive
personal information or proprietary
information. A comment about the
burden posed to a financial institution
by a regulation requiring the reporting
of certain transactions with designated
foreign financial agencies, but that does
not describe the regulation or the
SUMMARY:
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The legislative framework generally
referred to as the Bank Secrecy Act
(BSA) consists of the Currency and
Financial Transactions Reporting Act of
1970, as amended by the Uniting and
Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept
and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001
(USA PATRIOT Act), Public Law 107–
56 (October 26, 2001), and other
legislation, including most recently the
Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020
(AML Act).1 The BSA is codified at 12
U.S.C. 1829b, 12 U.S.C. 1951–1960, 31
U.S.C. 5311–5314 and 5316–5336, and
includes notes thereto, with
implementing regulations at 31 CFR
Chapter X.
The BSA authorizes the Secretary of
the Treasury, inter alia, to require
financial institutions to keep records
and file reports that are determined to
have a high degree of usefulness in
criminal, tax, and regulatory matters, or
in the conduct of intelligence or
counter-intelligence activities to protect
against international terrorism, and to
implement AML programs and
compliance procedures.2 Regulations
implementing the BSA appear at 31 CFR
Chapter X. The authority of the
Secretary to administer the BSA has
been delegated to the Director of
FinCEN.3
The Secretary is authorized to require
any ‘‘resident or citizen of the United
States or a person in, and doing
business in, the United States, to . . .
keep records and file reports, when the
resident, citizen, or person makes a
transaction or maintains a relation for
any person with a foreign financial
agency.’’ 4 The term ‘‘foreign financial
agency’’ 5 (FFA) means any person
1 The AML Act was enacted as Division F,
§§ 6001–6511, of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2021, Public Law 116–283, 134 Stat 3388 (2021).
2 Section 358 of the USA PATRIOT Act added
language expanding the scope of the BSA to
intelligence or counter-intelligence activities to
protect against international terrorism. Section 6101
of the AML Act added language further expanding
the scope of the BSA but did not amend these
longstanding purposes.
3 Treasury Order 180–01 (re-affirmed Jan. 14,
2020).
4 31 U.S.C. 5314(a).
5 31 U.S.C. 5312(b)(2).
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engaging in any activities outside the
United States of a ‘‘financial agency,’’
which the statute defines as ‘‘a person
acting for a person . . . as a financial
institution, bailee, depository trustee, or
agent, or acting in a similar way related
to money, credit, securities, gold, or a
transaction in money, credit, securities
or gold, or a service provided with
respect to money, securities, futures,
precious metals, stones and jewels, or
value that substitutes for currency.’’ 6
The Secretary is also authorized to
prescribe exemptions to the reporting
requirement and to prescribe other
matters the Secretary considers
necessary to carry out 31 U.S.C. 5314.
The regulations implementing reports of
transactions with foreign financial
agencies are found at 31 CFR 1010.360.
31 CFR 1010.360(a) authorizes the
Secretary, when the Secretary deems
appropriate, to promulgate regulations
requiring specified financial institutions
to file reports of certain transactions
with designated FFAs.7
A regulation promulgated pursuant to
31 CFR 1010.360(a) must designate one
or more of the following categories of
information to be reported by the
specified financial institution:
• Checks or drafts, including
traveler’s checks, received by a
respondent financial institution for
collection or credit to the account of a
designated FFA, sent by the respondent
financial institution to a foreign country
for collection or payment, drawn by the
respondent financial institution on a
designated FFA, or drawn by a
designated FFA on the respondent
financial institution, including the
following information: Name of maker
or drawer; name of drawee or drawee
financial institution; name of payee;
date and amount of instrument; and
names of all endorsers.
• Transmittal orders received by a
respondent financial institution from a
6 See 31 U.S.C. 5312(a)(1) as amended by 6102
(d)(1)(A) of the AML Act. The definition of financial
agency exempts a person acting for a country, a
monetary or financial authority acting as a
monetary or financial authority, or an international
financial institution of which the United States
Government is a member.
7 If such a regulation is issued as a final rule
without notice and opportunity for public
comment, then a finding of good cause for
dispensing with notice and comment in accordance
with 5 U.S.C. 553(b) must be included in the
regulation. If the regulation is not published in the
Federal Register, then any financial institution
subject to the regulation must be named and
personally served or otherwise given actual notice
in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(b). If a financial
institution is given notice of a reporting
requirement by means other than publication in the
Federal Register, the Secretary may prohibit
disclosure of the existence or provisions of that
reporting requirement to the designated FFA(s) and
to any other party. See 31 C.F.R. 1010.360(a).
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designated FFA or sent by the
respondent financial institution to a
designated FFA, including all
information maintained by that
institution pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.410
and 1020.410.
• Loans made by a respondent
financial institution to or through a
designated FFA, including the following
information: Name of borrower; name of
person acting for borrower; date and
amount of loan; terms of repayment;
name of guarantor; rate of interest;
method of distributing proceeds; and
collateral for loan.
• Commercial paper received or
shipped by a respondent financial
institution, including the following
information: Name of maker; date and
amount of paper; due date; certificate
number; and amount of transaction.
• Stocks received or shipped by a
respondent financial institution,
including the following information:
Name of corporation; type of stock;
certificate number; number of shares;
date of certificate; name of registered
holder; and amount of transaction.
• Bonds received or shipped by a
respondent financial institution,
including the following information:
Name of issuer; bond number; type of
bond series; date issued; due date; rate
of interest; amount of transaction; and
name of registered holder.
• Certificates of deposit received or
shipped by a respondent financial
institution, including the following
information: Name and address of
issuer; date issued; dollar amount; name
of registered holder; due date; rate of
interest; certificate number; and name
and address of issuing agent.
In issuing regulations as provided in
31 CFR 1010.360(a), the Secretary must
prescribe: A reasonable classification of
financial institutions subject to or
exempt from a reporting requirement; a
foreign country to which a reporting
requirement applies if the Secretary
decides that applying the requirement to
all foreign countries is unnecessary or
undesirable; the magnitude of
transactions subject to a reporting
requirement; and the kind of transaction
subject to or exempt from a reporting
requirement.
Regulations issued pursuant to 31
CFR 1010.360(a) may prescribe the
manner in which the information is to
be reported. However, the Secretary may
authorize a designated financial
institution to report in a different
manner if the institution demonstrates
to the Secretary that the form of the
required report is unnecessarily
burdensome on the institution as
prescribed; that a report in a different
form will provide all the information
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the Secretary deems necessary; and that
submission of the information in a
different manner will not unduly hinder
the effective administration of 31 CFR
Chapter X.
In issuing regulations under 31 CFR
1010.360(e), the Secretary: (i) Must
consider the need to avoid impeding or
controlling the export or import of
monetary instruments and the need to
avoid burdening unreasonably a person
making a transaction with a designated
FFA; (ii) cannot issue a regulation under
31 CFR 1010.360(a) for the purpose of
obtaining individually identifiable
account information concerning a
customer, as defined by the Right to
Financial Privacy Act,8 where that
customer is already the subject of an
ongoing investigation for possible
violation of the BSA, or is known by the
Secretary to be the subject of an
investigation for possible violation of
any other Federal law; and (iii) may
issue a regulation pursuant to 31 CFR
1010.360(a) requiring a financial
institution to report transactions
completed prior to the date it received
notice of the reporting requirement.
However, with respect to completed
transactions, a financial institution may
be required to provide information only
from records required to be maintained
pursuant to the requirements of 31 CFR
Chapter X, or any other provision of
state or Federal law, or otherwise
maintained in the regular course of
business.
31 CFR 1010.430(d) requires that all
records that are required to be retained
by Chapter X must be retained for a
period of five years.
II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(PRA) 9
Title: Reports of transactions with
foreign financial agencies (31 CFR
1010.360).
OMB Control Number: 1506–0055.
Report Number: Not applicable.
Abstract: FinCEN is issuing this
notice to renew the OMB control
number for regulations requiring reports
of transactions with designated FFAs.
Affected Public: Businesses or other
for-profit institutions, and non-profit
institutions.
Type of Review:
• Renewal without change of a
currently approved information
collection.
• Propose for review and comment a
renewal of the portion of the PRA
burden that has been subject to notice
and comment in the past (the
‘‘traditional annual PRA burden’’).
8 12
U.S.C. 3401 et seq.
Law 104–13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).
9 Public
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• Propose for review and comment a
future expansion of the scope of the
PRA burden (the ‘‘supplemental annual
PRA burden’’).
Frequency: As required.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 9
domestic financial institutions.10
Estimated Total Annual Responses:
84 responses.11
Estimated Recordkeeping Burden:
In Part 1, FinCEN proposes for review
and comment a renewal of the estimate
of the traditional annual PRA hourly
burden, which includes a scope and
methodology similar to that used in the
past, with the incorporation of a more
robust cost estimate. In the past, FinCEN
estimated that, for one FFA request, it
would take one financial institution five
hours to report the required transactions
as part of one response. The scope and
methodology used in the past did not
factor in that, as part of one FFA
request, financial institutions may be
asked to report on multiple prior
(‘‘backward-looking’’) and future
(‘‘forward-looking’’) transactions with a
designated FFA. FinCEN assesses that
the volume of reportable transactions,
per financial institution and FFA
request over a specified forward- and
backward-looking period, along with the
burden to implement a monitoring
system for such transactions, would be
the best indication of an annual hourly
burden estimate per financial institution
in the future. For that reason, in Part 2,
FinCEN proposes for review and
comment a methodology to estimate the
hourly burden and the cost of a future
estimate of a supplemental annual PRA
burden that includes the burden and
cost per financial institution, per FFA
request of complying with forward and
backward-looking reporting
requirements. Finally, in Part 3, FinCEN
solicits input from the public about: (a)
The accuracy of the traditional annual
PRA burden estimate; (b) the method
proposed for the calculation of the
future supplemental annual PRA
burden; (c) the criteria, metrics, and
most appropriate questions FinCEN
should consider when researching the
information to estimate the future
traditional and supplemental annual
PRA burden, according to the
methodology proposed; and (d) any
other comments about the regulations
and the current and proposed future
hourly burden and cost estimates of
these requirements.
Part 1. Traditional Annual PRA Burden
and Cost
Generally, the information required to
be reported pursuant to an FFA
regulation is basic information that a
domestic financial institution would
already maintain based on current BSA
recordkeeping requirements. For
example, a domestic financial
institution sending or receiving
transmittal orders (funds transfers) with
a designated FFA would have access to
the information required to be reported.
The information required to be reported
pursuant to an FFA regulation includes
one or more of the following categories:
(i) Checks or drafts; (ii) transmittal
orders; (iii) loans; (iv) commercial
paper; (v) stocks; (vi) bonds; and (vii)
certificates of deposit. Although FFA
requests may include any of these types
of transactions, in general, over the past
three years, FinCEN has only made
requests associated with funds transfers.
As noted above, FinCEN will specify
the form and method for reporting and
typically provides a reporting schedule
to each specified financial institution. If
a specified financial institution does not
have any reportable transactions, that
information must be reported to
FinCEN.
Because of the difficulty involved in
estimating the (i) volume of reportable
transactions per FFA request over a
specified forward- and backwardlooking period of time, and (ii) burden
for a financial institution to implement
a monitoring system to conduct such
searches, FinCEN continues to estimate
that reporting this information will take
five hours on average for the traditional
annual PRA burden. Additionally, the
FFA information is typically reported by
uploading a comma-separated value file
spreadsheet through FinCEN’s Secure
Information Sharing System, which
allows the filer to save an electronic
version of the report and satisfy the
recordkeeping requirement. FinCEN
estimates that the recordkeeping
requirement will take five minutes on
average. Therefore, FinCEN estimates
the total hourly reporting and
recordkeeping burden for each FFA
request is five hours and five minutes
per response by a financial institution.12
FinCEN’s estimate of the traditional
annual PRA burden, therefore, is 427
hours, as detailed in Table 1 below:
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TABLE 1—BURDEN ASSOCIATED WITH EACH PORTION OF THE TRADITIONAL ANNUAL PRA ESTIMATE
Action
Responses per year
Time per
instance
Total hourly
burden
A. Filing reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs ....................................
B. Complying with recordkeeping requirements in 31 CFR 1010.430 .........................
84 reports per year ......
84 records per year .....
5 hours ...........
5 minutes .......
420
7
Total Hourly Burden ..............................................................................................
......................................
........................
427
To calculate the hourly costs of the
burden estimate, FinCEN identified six
roles and corresponding staff positions
involved in filing reports of certain
transactions with designated FFAs: (i)
General oversight (providing institutionlevel process approval); (ii) general
supervision (providing process
oversight); (iii) direct supervision
(reviewing operational-level work and
cross-checking all or a sample of the
work product against supporting
documentation); (iv) clerical work
(engaging in research and administrative
review, and recordkeeping); (v) legal
10 Between 2019–2021, FinCEN sent FFA requests
to an average of 9 financial institutions (5–13
financial institutions per request for an average of
9 financial institutions per request).
11 Between 2019–2021, FinCEN sent a total of 4
requests to an average of 9 financial institutions, for
a total average of 36 requests over three years. The
requests asked for information on 1 to 12 FFAs per
request, with an average of 6.5 (rounded up to 7)
FFAs per request. 36 total average requests
multiplied by 7 FFAs per request equals 252
responses over the course of 3 years. Therefore, the
annual estimated number of responses is 252
responses divided by 3 years, which equals 84
responses annually.
12 The scope and methodology used in 2014,
when FinCEN had not yet issued regulations under
this authority, estimated the number of respondents
per year as 1. The estimated number of responses
was also 1 with a reporting burden of 1 hour per
respondent for a total annual burden of 1 hour. The
1 hour burden estimate was to keep the OMB
control number effective. At the time, FinCEN
noted that should it issue regulations under this
authority, it would provide a burden estimate
specific to those regulations. In 2016, following the
issuance of a non-public regulation under this
authority, FinCEN requested that OMB revise the
number of respondents per year to 200, at 1
response per respondent, with a reporting burden
of 5 hours per respondent, for a total annual burden
of 1,000 hours. OMB issued a Notice of Action
reflecting the revised burden hours on March 13,
2019.
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compliance (ensuring the reporting
process is in legal compliance); and (vi)
computer support (ensuring feasibility
of electronic submission and housing
reports internally).
FinCEN calculated the fully-loaded
hourly wage for each of these six roles
by using the mean wage estimated by
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS),13 and computing an additional
benefits cost as follows:
TABLE 2—FULLY-LOADED HOURLY WAGE BY ROLE AND BLS JOB POSITION FOR ALL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS COVERED
BY THIS NOTICE
Role
BLS-code
General oversight 15 ..............................
General supervision ..............................
Direct supervision .................................
Clerical work (research, review, and
recordkeeping).
Legal compliance ..................................
Computer support .................................
FinCEN estimates that, in general and
on average,17 each role would spend
different amounts of time on each
Benefit
factor
Mean hourly
wage 14
BLS-name
Fully-loaded
hourly wage
11–1010
11–3031
13–1041
43–3099
Chief Executive16 .................................
Financial Manager ................................
Compliance Officer ...............................
Financial Clerk .....................................
$107.12
74.59
35.81
23.27
1.42
1.42
1.42
1.42
$152.11
105.92
50.85
33.04
23–1010
11–3021
Lawyers and Judicial Law Clerks .........
Computer and Information Systems
Managers.
85.66
77.77
1.42
1.42
121.64
110.43
portion of the traditional annual PRA
burden, as follows:
For filing reports of certain
transactions with designated FFAs, the
cost of each burden hour is estimated to
be $95.00, as shown in Table 3 below:
TABLE 3—EQUAL WEIGHTED AVERAGE HOURLY COST OF FILING REPORTS OF CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS WITH
DESIGNATED FFAS
% Time
Hourly cost
General Oversight ....................................................................................................................................................
General Supervision ................................................................................................................................................
Direct Supervision ....................................................................................................................................................
Clerical Work ...........................................................................................................................................................
Legal Compliance ....................................................................................................................................................
Computer Support ...................................................................................................................................................
16.67
16.67
16.67
16.67
16.67
16.67
$25.35
17.65
8.48
5.51
20.27
18.41
Equal Weighted Average Hourly Cost .............................................................................................................
........................
95.67
* $95.67
rounded to $95.00.
The total estimated cost of the
traditional annual PRA burden is
$40,565 as reflected in Table 4 below:
TABLE 4—TOTAL COST OF TRADITIONAL ANNUAL PRA BURDEN
Steps
Hourly burden
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Filing reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs (divided between the roles listed
in Table 2) ................................................................................................................................
Complying with the recordkeeping requirements in 31 CFR 1010.430 (divided between the
roles listed in Table 2) .............................................................................................................
Total cost ..............................................................................................................................
13 The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2020
OEWS National Industry-Specific Occupational
Employment and Wage Estimates (bls.gov). The
most recent data from the BLS corresponds to May
2020. For the benefits component of total
compensation, see U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
‘‘Table 9. Private industry workers, by major
occupational group: employer costs per hour
worked for employee compensation and costs as a
percentage of total compensation’’, available at
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
Historical Tables—June 2021 (bls.gov). The ratio
between benefits and wages for private industry
workers is $10.83 (hourly benefits)/$25.80 (hourly
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wages) = 0.42, as of March 2021. The benefit factor
is 1 plus the benefit/wages ratio, or 1.42.
Multiplying each hourly wage by the benefit factor
produces the fully-loaded hourly wage per position.
14 For each occupation, FinCEN took the average
of reported mean hourly wage across 9 affected
financial industries (as measured at the most
granular NAICS code available, whether at the 2, 3,
4 or 5 digit NAICS code; see the BLS May 2020
OEWS National Industry-Specific Occupational
Employment and Wage Estimates (bls.gov)).
15 General oversight may include board of
directors/trustees approval.
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Hourly cost
Total cost
18 420
19 $95.00
$39,900
20 7
........................
21 95.00
........................
665
40,565
16 Chief executive officer is the highest paid
category in the BLS Occupational Employment
Statistics. For that reason, FinCEN is conservatively
estimating the highest wage rate available for its
cost analysis.
17 By ‘‘in general,’’ FinCEN means without regard
to outliers (e.g., financial institutions with FFA
reporting requirements with complexities that are
uncommonly higher or lower than those of the
population at large). By ‘‘on average,’’ FinCEN
means the mean of the distribution of each subset
of the population.
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Part 2. Supplemental Annual PRA
Burden
In the future, FinCEN intends to add
a supplemental annual PRA burden
calculation that will include the
estimated hourly burden and cost to
comply with forward- and backwardlooking reporting requirements as part
of filing reports of certain transactions
with designated FFAs. This estimate
will include the burden associated with
implementing a monitoring system to
identify such transactions.
During the period from 2019 to 2021,
FFA regulations issued by FinCEN had
a forward- and backward-looking
reporting requirement. Specified
financial institutions were required to
report forward 90–180 days out from the
effective date of the regulation (usually
the date of issuance), and backward 14
months to five years prior to the
effective date of the regulation.
Specified financial institutions were
required to file one report for certain
backward-looking transactions, and a
report every 30-days for certain forwardlooking transactions. As a result, one
FFA regulation could result in as many
as 7 different reporting periods.22 The
majority of financial institutions
combined the reportable transactions for
all FFAs listed in one regulation 23 into
a single report for each reporting period,
thereby reducing the overall number of
reports the financial institution might
have otherwise provided.
As noted above, FinCEN assesses that
the volume of reportable transactions
per financial institution and FFA
request, over a specified forward- and
backward-looking period, along with the
burden to implement a monitoring
system for such transactions, would be
the best indication of an annual hourly
burden estimate in the future. FinCEN
does not have the necessary information
to provide a tentative estimate for these
supplemental PRA hourly burdens and
costs within the current notice. In
addition, FinCEN does not have all the
necessary information to precisely
estimate the traditional annual PRA
burden. For that reason, FinCEN is
relying on estimates used in prior
renewals of this OMB control number
and the applicable regulations. FinCEN
further recognizes that after receiving
public comments as a result of this
18 See
Table 1.
Table 3.
20 See Table 1.
21 See Table 3.
22 180 days divided into 30-day increments
results in 6 forward-looking reports. Adding one
backward-looking report gives a totals of 7 reports.
23 Between 2019–2021, FinCEN issued
regulations that asked for information on 1 to 12
FFAs.
19 See
VerDate Sep<11>2014
20:22 Jan 10, 2022
Jkt 256001
notice, future traditional annual PRA
hourly burden and cost estimates may
vary significantly. FinCEN intends to
conduct more granular studies of the
actions included in the proposed scope
of the supplemental annual PRA burden
in the near future to arrive at more
precise estimates of net BSA hourly
burden and cost.24 The data obtained in
these studies also may result in a
significant variation of the estimated
traditional annual PRA burden.
Estimated Recordkeeping Burden: The
average estimated annual PRA burden,
measured in hours per respondent, is
five hours and five minutes (five burden
hours to file reports of certain
transactions with designated FFAs, and
five minutes to comply with
recordkeeping requirements).
Estimated Number of Respondents: 9,
as noted above in Section II.
Estimated Total Annual Responses:
84 responses reporting on certain
transactions with designated FFAs
annually; and 84 instances of
recordkeeping associated with these
responses annually, as noted in Section
II.
Estimated Total Annual
Recordkeeping Burden: The estimated
total annual PRA burden is 427 hours,
as set out in Table 1.
Estimated Total Annual
Recordkeeping Cost: The estimated total
annual PRA cost is $40,565, as set out
in Table 4.
An Agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a collection of information
unless the collection of information
displays a valid OMB control number.
Records required to be retained under
the BSA must be retained for five years.
Part 3. Request for Comments
(a) Specific request for comments on
the traditional annual PRA hourly
burden and cost.
FinCEN invites comments on any
aspect of the traditional annual PRA
burden, as set out in Part 1 of this
24 Net hourly burden and cost are the burden and
cost a financial institution incurs to comply with
requirements that are unique to the BSA, and that
do not support any other business purpose or
regulatory obligation of the financial institution.
Burden for purposes of the PRA does not include
the time and financial resources needed to comply
with an information collection, if the time and
resources are for things a business (or other person)
does in the ordinary course of its activities if the
agency demonstrates that the reporting activities
needed to comply are usual and customary. 5 CFR
1320.3(b)(2). For example, a financial institution
may be collecting and maintaining information on
certain transactions with designated FFAs in order
to satisfy other obligations including (i) protecting
the financial institution from fraud against itself or
its customers, or (ii) complying with other non-BSA
regulatory requirements such as those imposed by
the specific Federal functional regulator.
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Frm 00092
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
1483
notice. In particular, FinCEN seeks
comments on the adequacy of: (i)
FinCEN’s assumptions underlying its
estimate of the burden; (ii) the estimated
number of hours required by each
portion of the burden; and (iii) the
organizational levels of the financial
institution engaged in each portion of
the burden, their estimated hourly
remuneration, and the estimated
proportion of participation by each role.
FinCEN encourages commenters to
include any publicly available sources
for alternative estimates or
methodologies.
(b) Specific request for comments on
the proposed criteria for determining
the scope of a supplemental annual
PRA hourly burden and cost estimate.
FinCEN invites comments on any
aspect of the criteria for a future
estimate of the supplemental annual
PRA burden, as set out in Part 2 of this
notice.
(c) Specific request for comments on
the appropriate criteria, methodology,
and questionnaire required to obtain
information to more precisely estimate
the supplemental annual PRA hourly
burden and cost.
FinCEN invites comments on the most
appropriate and comprehensive means
to question financial institutions about
the annual hourly burden and cost
attributable solely to complying with
the regulations that require reports of
transactions with designated FFAs.
The supplemental annual PRA hourly
burden and cost estimate to comply
with the regulations that require reports
of transactions with designated FFAs
must take into consideration only the
effort involved in obtaining those data
elements that are used exclusively for
complying with requirements under 31
CFR 1010.360 and 31 CFR 1010.430,
respectively. Given the complexity in
determining what portion of the effort to
include in the estimate, FinCEN seeks
comments from the public regarding any
questions we should consider posing in
future notices, in addition to the
specific questions for comment outlined
directly below.
Specific Questions for Comments
• What is the burden to comply with
requests for records issued under the
FFA regulations (31 CFR 1010.360 and
31 CFR 1010.430)?
• How much time is spent on
complying with the backward-looking
requirements of an FFA request?
• How much time is spent on
complying with the forward-looking
requirements of an FFA request?
• Of the time spent on complying
with backward- or forward-looking
reporting requirements, what percentage
E:\FR\FM\11JAN1.SGM
11JAN1
1484
Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 7 / Tuesday, January 11, 2022 / Notices
is spent by an employee with the role
of general oversight? Of general
supervision? Of direct supervision? Of
clerical work? Of legal compliance? Of
computer support?
• Are there employees with any other
roles and corresponding staff positions
involved in filing reports of certain
transactions with designated FFAs?
• Does your financial institution
typically report the data for requests
that involve multiple designated FFAs
in one report or multiple reports for
each tranche of reporting?
• What challenges does your financial
institution face or overcome in
complying with FFA regulations?
• What can be done to improve
transparency and communication as
part of the FFA reporting process?
General Request for Comments
Comments submitted in response to
this notice will be summarized and/or
included in the request for OMB
approval. All comments will become a
matter of public record. Comments are
invited on: (i) Whether the collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
agency, including whether the
information shall have practical utility;
(ii) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate
of the burden of the collection of
information; (iii) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; (iv) 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; and (v) estimates of capital
or start-up costs and costs of operation,
maintenance, and purchase of services
to provide information.
Himamauli Das,
Acting Director, Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network.
[FR Doc. 2022–00332 Filed 1–10–22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810–02–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Internal Revenue Service
khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Proposed Extension of Information
Collection Request Submitted for
Public Comment; Comment Request
for Form 5754
Internal Revenue Service (IRS),
Treasury.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
AGENCY:
The Internal Revenue Service,
as part of its continuing effort to reduce
paperwork and respondent burden,
SUMMARY:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
20:03 Jan 10, 2022
Jkt 256001
invites the public and other Federal
agencies to take this opportunity to
comment on proposed and/or
continuing information collections, as
required by the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995. Currently, the IRS is
soliciting comments concerning Form
5754, Statement by Person(s) Receiving
Gambling Winnings.
DATES: Written comments should be
received on or before March 14, 2022 to
be assured of consideration.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent
within 60 days of publication of this
notice to omb.unit@irs.gov. Please
include, ‘‘OMB Number: 1545–0239—
Public Comment Request Notice’’ in the
Subject line. Requests for additional
information or copies of this collection
can be directed to Ronald J. Durbala, at
RJoseph.Durbala@irs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Statement by Person(s)
Receiving Gambling Winnings.
OMB Number: 1545–0239.
Project Number: Form 5754.
Abstract: Form 5754 is to be
completed if you receive gambling
winnings either for someone else or as
a member of a group of winners on the
same winning ticket. The information
you provide on the form enables the
payer of the winnings to prepare Form
W–2G, Certain Gambling Winnings, for
each winner to show the winnings
taxable to each.
Current Actions: There is no change
in the paperwork burden previously
approved by OMB. This form is being
submitted for renewal purposes only.
Type of Review: Extension of a
currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations, individuals or
households, and not-for-profit
institutions.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
204,000.
Estimated Time per Respondent: 12
min.
Estimated Total Annual Burden
Hours: 40,800.
The following paragraph applies to all
the collections of information covered
by this notice:
An agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a collection of information
unless the collection of information
displays a valid OMB control number.
Books or records relating to a
collection of information must be
retained if their contents may become
material in the administration of any
internal revenue law. Generally, tax
returns and tax return information are
PO 00000
Frm 00093
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
confidential, as required by 26 U.S.C.
6103.
Desired Focus of Comments: The
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is
particularly interested in comments
that:
• Evaluate whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary
for the proper performance of the
functions of the agency, including
whether the information will have
practical utility.
• Evaluate the accuracy of the
agency’s estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used.
• Enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be
collected; and
• Minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who
are to respond, including using
appropriate automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology, e.g., by
permitting electronic submissions of
responses.
Comments submitted in response to
this notice will be summarized and/or
included in the ICR for OMB approval
of the extension of the information
collection; they will also become a
matter of public record.
Approved: January 5, 2022.
Ronald J. Durbala,
IRS Tax Analyst.
[FR Doc. 2022–00335 Filed 1–10–22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4830–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Internal Revenue Service
Proposed Extension of Information
Collection Request Submitted for
Public Comment; Comment Request
for Form 5310–A
Internal Revenue Service (IRS),
Treasury.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
AGENCY:
The Internal Revenue Service,
as part of its continuing effort to reduce
paperwork and respondent burden,
invites the public and other Federal
agencies to take this opportunity to
comment on proposed and/or
continuing information collections, as
required by the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995. Currently, the IRS is
soliciting comments concerning Form
5310–A, Notice of Plan Merger or
Consolidation, Spinoff, or Transfer of
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\11JAN1.SGM
11JAN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 11, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1479-1484]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-00332]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal;
Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Reports of Transactions With
Foreign Financial Agencies
AGENCY: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Treasury.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and
respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal,
without change, of a currently approved information collection found in
existing Bank Secrecy Act regulations. Specifically, the regulations
authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, as appropriate, to promulgate
regulations requiring specified financial institutions to file reports
with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of certain transactions
with designated foreign financial agencies. Although no changes are
proposed to the information collection itself, this request for
comments covers a future expansion of the scope of the annual hourly
burden and cost estimate associated with these regulations. This
request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995.
DATES: Written comments are welcome, and must be received on or before
March 14, 2022
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
Federal E-rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Refer to Docket Number
FINCEN-2022-0001 and the specific Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
control number 1506-0055.
Mail: Policy Division, Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network, P.O. Box 39, Vienna, VA 22183. Refer to Docket Number FINCEN-
2022-0001 and OMB control number 1506-0055.
Please submit comments by one method only. Comments will generally
become a matter of public record. For this reason, please do not
include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as
sensitive personal information or proprietary information. A comment
about the burden posed to a financial institution by a regulation
requiring the reporting of certain transactions with designated foreign
financial agencies, but that does not describe the regulation or the
reporting requirement in detail will not be considered to contain
confidential information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The FinCEN Regulatory Support Section
at 1-800-767-2825 or electronically at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Statutory and Regulatory Provisions
The legislative framework generally referred to as the Bank Secrecy
Act (BSA) consists of the Currency and Financial Transactions Reporting
Act of 1970, as amended by the Uniting and Strengthening America by
Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct
Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act), Public Law 107-56 (October 26,
2001), and other legislation, including most recently the Anti-Money
Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act).\1\ The BSA is codified at 12 U.S.C.
1829b, 12 U.S.C. 1951-1960, 31 U.S.C. 5311-5314 and 5316-5336, and
includes notes thereto, with implementing regulations at 31 CFR Chapter
X.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The AML Act was enacted as Division F, Sec. Sec. 6001-6511,
of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Public Law 116-283, 134 Stat 3388 (2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The BSA authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, inter alia, to
require financial institutions to keep records and file reports that
are determined to have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax,
and regulatory matters, or in the conduct of intelligence or counter-
intelligence activities to protect against international terrorism, and
to implement AML programs and compliance procedures.\2\ Regulations
implementing the BSA appear at 31 CFR Chapter X. The authority of the
Secretary to administer the BSA has been delegated to the Director of
FinCEN.\3\
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\2\ Section 358 of the USA PATRIOT Act added language expanding
the scope of the BSA to intelligence or counter-intelligence
activities to protect against international terrorism. Section 6101
of the AML Act added language further expanding the scope of the BSA
but did not amend these longstanding purposes.
\3\ Treasury Order 180-01 (re-affirmed Jan. 14, 2020).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Secretary is authorized to require any ``resident or citizen of
the United States or a person in, and doing business in, the United
States, to . . . keep records and file reports, when the resident,
citizen, or person makes a transaction or maintains a relation for any
person with a foreign financial agency.'' \4\ The term ``foreign
financial agency'' \5\ (FFA) means any person
[[Page 1480]]
engaging in any activities outside the United States of a ``financial
agency,'' which the statute defines as ``a person acting for a person .
. . as a financial institution, bailee, depository trustee, or agent,
or acting in a similar way related to money, credit, securities, gold,
or a transaction in money, credit, securities or gold, or a service
provided with respect to money, securities, futures, precious metals,
stones and jewels, or value that substitutes for currency.'' \6\ The
Secretary is also authorized to prescribe exemptions to the reporting
requirement and to prescribe other matters the Secretary considers
necessary to carry out 31 U.S.C. 5314. The regulations implementing
reports of transactions with foreign financial agencies are found at 31
CFR 1010.360.
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\4\ 31 U.S.C. 5314(a).
\5\ 31 U.S.C. 5312(b)(2).
\6\ See 31 U.S.C. 5312(a)(1) as amended by 6102 (d)(1)(A) of the
AML Act. The definition of financial agency exempts a person acting
for a country, a monetary or financial authority acting as a
monetary or financial authority, or an international financial
institution of which the United States Government is a member.
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31 CFR 1010.360(a) authorizes the Secretary, when the Secretary
deems appropriate, to promulgate regulations requiring specified
financial institutions to file reports of certain transactions with
designated FFAs.\7\
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\7\ If such a regulation is issued as a final rule without
notice and opportunity for public comment, then a finding of good
cause for dispensing with notice and comment in accordance with 5
U.S.C. 553(b) must be included in the regulation. If the regulation
is not published in the Federal Register, then any financial
institution subject to the regulation must be named and personally
served or otherwise given actual notice in accordance with 5 U.S.C.
553(b). If a financial institution is given notice of a reporting
requirement by means other than publication in the Federal Register,
the Secretary may prohibit disclosure of the existence or provisions
of that reporting requirement to the designated FFA(s) and to any
other party. See 31 C.F.R. 1010.360(a).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A regulation promulgated pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360(a) must
designate one or more of the following categories of information to be
reported by the specified financial institution:
Checks or drafts, including traveler's checks, received by
a respondent financial institution for collection or credit to the
account of a designated FFA, sent by the respondent financial
institution to a foreign country for collection or payment, drawn by
the respondent financial institution on a designated FFA, or drawn by a
designated FFA on the respondent financial institution, including the
following information: Name of maker or drawer; name of drawee or
drawee financial institution; name of payee; date and amount of
instrument; and names of all endorsers.
Transmittal orders received by a respondent financial
institution from a designated FFA or sent by the respondent financial
institution to a designated FFA, including all information maintained
by that institution pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.410 and 1020.410.
Loans made by a respondent financial institution to or
through a designated FFA, including the following information: Name of
borrower; name of person acting for borrower; date and amount of loan;
terms of repayment; name of guarantor; rate of interest; method of
distributing proceeds; and collateral for loan.
Commercial paper received or shipped by a respondent
financial institution, including the following information: Name of
maker; date and amount of paper; due date; certificate number; and
amount of transaction.
Stocks received or shipped by a respondent financial
institution, including the following information: Name of corporation;
type of stock; certificate number; number of shares; date of
certificate; name of registered holder; and amount of transaction.
Bonds received or shipped by a respondent financial
institution, including the following information: Name of issuer; bond
number; type of bond series; date issued; due date; rate of interest;
amount of transaction; and name of registered holder.
Certificates of deposit received or shipped by a
respondent financial institution, including the following information:
Name and address of issuer; date issued; dollar amount; name of
registered holder; due date; rate of interest; certificate number; and
name and address of issuing agent.
In issuing regulations as provided in 31 CFR 1010.360(a), the
Secretary must prescribe: A reasonable classification of financial
institutions subject to or exempt from a reporting requirement; a
foreign country to which a reporting requirement applies if the
Secretary decides that applying the requirement to all foreign
countries is unnecessary or undesirable; the magnitude of transactions
subject to a reporting requirement; and the kind of transaction subject
to or exempt from a reporting requirement.
Regulations issued pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360(a) may prescribe the
manner in which the information is to be reported. However, the
Secretary may authorize a designated financial institution to report in
a different manner if the institution demonstrates to the Secretary
that the form of the required report is unnecessarily burdensome on the
institution as prescribed; that a report in a different form will
provide all the information the Secretary deems necessary; and that
submission of the information in a different manner will not unduly
hinder the effective administration of 31 CFR Chapter X.
In issuing regulations under 31 CFR 1010.360(e), the Secretary: (i)
Must consider the need to avoid impeding or controlling the export or
import of monetary instruments and the need to avoid burdening
unreasonably a person making a transaction with a designated FFA; (ii)
cannot issue a regulation under 31 CFR 1010.360(a) for the purpose of
obtaining individually identifiable account information concerning a
customer, as defined by the Right to Financial Privacy Act,\8\ where
that customer is already the subject of an ongoing investigation for
possible violation of the BSA, or is known by the Secretary to be the
subject of an investigation for possible violation of any other Federal
law; and (iii) may issue a regulation pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360(a)
requiring a financial institution to report transactions completed
prior to the date it received notice of the reporting requirement.
However, with respect to completed transactions, a financial
institution may be required to provide information only from records
required to be maintained pursuant to the requirements of 31 CFR
Chapter X, or any other provision of state or Federal law, or otherwise
maintained in the regular course of business.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ 12 U.S.C. 3401 et seq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
31 CFR 1010.430(d) requires that all records that are required to
be retained by Chapter X must be retained for a period of five years.
II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) \9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ Public Law 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Reports of transactions with foreign financial agencies (31
CFR 1010.360).
OMB Control Number: 1506-0055.
Report Number: Not applicable.
Abstract: FinCEN is issuing this notice to renew the OMB control
number for regulations requiring reports of transactions with
designated FFAs.
Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit institutions, and
non-profit institutions.
Type of Review:
Renewal without change of a currently approved information
collection.
Propose for review and comment a renewal of the portion of
the PRA burden that has been subject to notice and comment in the past
(the ``traditional annual PRA burden'').
[[Page 1481]]
Propose for review and comment a future expansion of the
scope of the PRA burden (the ``supplemental annual PRA burden'').
Frequency: As required.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 9 domestic financial
institutions.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ Between 2019-2021, FinCEN sent FFA requests to an average
of 9 financial institutions (5-13 financial institutions per request
for an average of 9 financial institutions per request).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated Total Annual Responses: 84 responses.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ Between 2019-2021, FinCEN sent a total of 4 requests to an
average of 9 financial institutions, for a total average of 36
requests over three years. The requests asked for information on 1
to 12 FFAs per request, with an average of 6.5 (rounded up to 7)
FFAs per request. 36 total average requests multiplied by 7 FFAs per
request equals 252 responses over the course of 3 years. Therefore,
the annual estimated number of responses is 252 responses divided by
3 years, which equals 84 responses annually.
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Estimated Recordkeeping Burden:
In Part 1, FinCEN proposes for review and comment a renewal of the
estimate of the traditional annual PRA hourly burden, which includes a
scope and methodology similar to that used in the past, with the
incorporation of a more robust cost estimate. In the past, FinCEN
estimated that, for one FFA request, it would take one financial
institution five hours to report the required transactions as part of
one response. The scope and methodology used in the past did not factor
in that, as part of one FFA request, financial institutions may be
asked to report on multiple prior (``backward-looking'') and future
(``forward-looking'') transactions with a designated FFA. FinCEN
assesses that the volume of reportable transactions, per financial
institution and FFA request over a specified forward- and backward-
looking period, along with the burden to implement a monitoring system
for such transactions, would be the best indication of an annual hourly
burden estimate per financial institution in the future. For that
reason, in Part 2, FinCEN proposes for review and comment a methodology
to estimate the hourly burden and the cost of a future estimate of a
supplemental annual PRA burden that includes the burden and cost per
financial institution, per FFA request of complying with forward and
backward-looking reporting requirements. Finally, in Part 3, FinCEN
solicits input from the public about: (a) The accuracy of the
traditional annual PRA burden estimate; (b) the method proposed for the
calculation of the future supplemental annual PRA burden; (c) the
criteria, metrics, and most appropriate questions FinCEN should
consider when researching the information to estimate the future
traditional and supplemental annual PRA burden, according to the
methodology proposed; and (d) any other comments about the regulations
and the current and proposed future hourly burden and cost estimates of
these requirements.
Part 1. Traditional Annual PRA Burden and Cost
Generally, the information required to be reported pursuant to an
FFA regulation is basic information that a domestic financial
institution would already maintain based on current BSA recordkeeping
requirements. For example, a domestic financial institution sending or
receiving transmittal orders (funds transfers) with a designated FFA
would have access to the information required to be reported. The
information required to be reported pursuant to an FFA regulation
includes one or more of the following categories: (i) Checks or drafts;
(ii) transmittal orders; (iii) loans; (iv) commercial paper; (v)
stocks; (vi) bonds; and (vii) certificates of deposit. Although FFA
requests may include any of these types of transactions, in general,
over the past three years, FinCEN has only made requests associated
with funds transfers.
As noted above, FinCEN will specify the form and method for
reporting and typically provides a reporting schedule to each specified
financial institution. If a specified financial institution does not
have any reportable transactions, that information must be reported to
FinCEN.
Because of the difficulty involved in estimating the (i) volume of
reportable transactions per FFA request over a specified forward- and
backward-looking period of time, and (ii) burden for a financial
institution to implement a monitoring system to conduct such searches,
FinCEN continues to estimate that reporting this information will take
five hours on average for the traditional annual PRA burden.
Additionally, the FFA information is typically reported by uploading a
comma-separated value file spreadsheet through FinCEN's Secure
Information Sharing System, which allows the filer to save an
electronic version of the report and satisfy the recordkeeping
requirement. FinCEN estimates that the recordkeeping requirement will
take five minutes on average. Therefore, FinCEN estimates the total
hourly reporting and recordkeeping burden for each FFA request is five
hours and five minutes per response by a financial institution.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\12\ The scope and methodology used in 2014, when FinCEN had not
yet issued regulations under this authority, estimated the number of
respondents per year as 1. The estimated number of responses was
also 1 with a reporting burden of 1 hour per respondent for a total
annual burden of 1 hour. The 1 hour burden estimate was to keep the
OMB control number effective. At the time, FinCEN noted that should
it issue regulations under this authority, it would provide a burden
estimate specific to those regulations. In 2016, following the
issuance of a non-public regulation under this authority, FinCEN
requested that OMB revise the number of respondents per year to 200,
at 1 response per respondent, with a reporting burden of 5 hours per
respondent, for a total annual burden of 1,000 hours. OMB issued a
Notice of Action reflecting the revised burden hours on March 13,
2019.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
FinCEN's estimate of the traditional annual PRA burden, therefore,
is 427 hours, as detailed in Table 1 below:
Table 1--Burden Associated With Each Portion of the Traditional Annual PRA Estimate
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total hourly
Action Responses per year Time per instance burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Filing reports of certain 84 reports per year............... 5 hours................. 420
transactions with designated FFAs.
B. Complying with recordkeeping 84 records per year............... 5 minutes............... 7
requirements in 31 CFR 1010.430.
---------------
Total Hourly Burden........... .................................. ........................ 427
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To calculate the hourly costs of the burden estimate, FinCEN
identified six roles and corresponding staff positions involved in
filing reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs: (i)
General oversight (providing institution-level process approval); (ii)
general supervision (providing process oversight); (iii) direct
supervision (reviewing operational-level work and cross-checking all or
a sample of the work product against supporting documentation); (iv)
clerical work (engaging in research and administrative review, and
recordkeeping); (v) legal
[[Page 1482]]
compliance (ensuring the reporting process is in legal compliance); and
(vi) computer support (ensuring feasibility of electronic submission
and housing reports internally).
FinCEN calculated the fully-loaded hourly wage for each of these
six roles by using the mean wage estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS),\13\ and computing an additional benefits cost as
follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\13\ The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2020 OEWS National
Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
(bls.gov). The most recent data from the BLS corresponds to May
2020. For the benefits component of total compensation, see U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, ``Table 9. Private industry workers, by
major occupational group: employer costs per hour worked for
employee compensation and costs as a percentage of total
compensation'', available at Employer Costs for Employee
Compensation Historical Tables--June 2021 (bls.gov). The ratio
between benefits and wages for private industry workers is $10.83
(hourly benefits)/$25.80 (hourly wages) = 0.42, as of March 2021.
The benefit factor is 1 plus the benefit/wages ratio, or 1.42.
Multiplying each hourly wage by the benefit factor produces the
fully-loaded hourly wage per position.
Table 2--Fully-Loaded Hourly Wage by Role and BLS Job Position for All Financial Institutions Covered by This
Notice
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mean hourly Benefit Fully-loaded
Role BLS-code BLS-name wage \14\ factor hourly wage
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General oversight \15\.......... 11-1010 Chief Executive\16\ $107.12 1.42 $152.11
General supervision............. 11-3031 Financial Manager.. 74.59 1.42 105.92
Direct supervision.............. 13-1041 Compliance Officer. 35.81 1.42 50.85
Clerical work (research, review, 43-3099 Financial Clerk.... 23.27 1.42 33.04
and recordkeeping).
Legal compliance................ 23-1010 Lawyers and 85.66 1.42 121.64
Judicial Law
Clerks.
Computer support................ 11-3021 Computer and 77.77 1.42 110.43
Information
Systems Managers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FinCEN estimates that, in general and on average,\17\ each role
would spend different amounts of time on each portion of the
traditional annual PRA burden, as follows:
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\14\ For each occupation, FinCEN took the average of reported
mean hourly wage across 9 affected financial industries (as measured
at the most granular NAICS code available, whether at the 2, 3, 4 or
5 digit NAICS code; see the BLS May 2020 OEWS National Industry-
Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates (bls.gov)).
\15\ General oversight may include board of directors/trustees
approval.
\16\ Chief executive officer is the highest paid category in the
BLS Occupational Employment Statistics. For that reason, FinCEN is
conservatively estimating the highest wage rate available for its
cost analysis.
\17\ By ``in general,'' FinCEN means without regard to outliers
(e.g., financial institutions with FFA reporting requirements with
complexities that are uncommonly higher or lower than those of the
population at large). By ``on average,'' FinCEN means the mean of
the distribution of each subset of the population.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
For filing reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs,
the cost of each burden hour is estimated to be $95.00, as shown in
Table 3 below:
Table 3--Equal Weighted Average Hourly Cost of Filing Reports of Certain
Transactions With Designated FFAs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Time Hourly cost
------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Oversight....................... 16.67 $25.35
General Supervision..................... 16.67 17.65
Direct Supervision...................... 16.67 8.48
Clerical Work........................... 16.67 5.51
Legal Compliance........................ 16.67 20.27
Computer Support........................ 16.67 18.41
-------------------------------
Equal Weighted Average Hourly Cost.. .............. 95.67
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\*\ $95.67 rounded to $95.00.
The total estimated cost of the traditional annual PRA burden is
$40,565 as reflected in Table 4 below:
Table 4--Total Cost of Traditional Annual PRA Burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steps Hourly burden Hourly cost Total cost
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filing reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs \18\ 420 \19\ $95.00 $39,900
(divided between the roles listed in Table 2)..................
Complying with the recordkeeping requirements in 31 CFR 1010.430 \20\ 7 \21\ 95.00 665
(divided between the roles listed in Table 2)..................
Total cost.................................................. .............. .............. 40,565
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 1483]]
Part 2. Supplemental Annual PRA Burden
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\18\ See Table 1.
\19\ See Table 3.
\20\ See Table 1.
\21\ See Table 3.
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In the future, FinCEN intends to add a supplemental annual PRA
burden calculation that will include the estimated hourly burden and
cost to comply with forward- and backward-looking reporting
requirements as part of filing reports of certain transactions with
designated FFAs. This estimate will include the burden associated with
implementing a monitoring system to identify such transactions.
During the period from 2019 to 2021, FFA regulations issued by
FinCEN had a forward- and backward-looking reporting requirement.
Specified financial institutions were required to report forward 90-180
days out from the effective date of the regulation (usually the date of
issuance), and backward 14 months to five years prior to the effective
date of the regulation. Specified financial institutions were required
to file one report for certain backward-looking transactions, and a
report every 30-days for certain forward-looking transactions. As a
result, one FFA regulation could result in as many as 7 different
reporting periods.\22\ The majority of financial institutions combined
the reportable transactions for all FFAs listed in one regulation \23\
into a single report for each reporting period, thereby reducing the
overall number of reports the financial institution might have
otherwise provided.
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\22\ 180 days divided into 30-day increments results in 6
forward-looking reports. Adding one backward-looking report gives a
totals of 7 reports.
\23\ Between 2019-2021, FinCEN issued regulations that asked for
information on 1 to 12 FFAs.
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As noted above, FinCEN assesses that the volume of reportable
transactions per financial institution and FFA request, over a
specified forward- and backward-looking period, along with the burden
to implement a monitoring system for such transactions, would be the
best indication of an annual hourly burden estimate in the future.
FinCEN does not have the necessary information to provide a tentative
estimate for these supplemental PRA hourly burdens and costs within the
current notice. In addition, FinCEN does not have all the necessary
information to precisely estimate the traditional annual PRA burden.
For that reason, FinCEN is relying on estimates used in prior renewals
of this OMB control number and the applicable regulations. FinCEN
further recognizes that after receiving public comments as a result of
this notice, future traditional annual PRA hourly burden and cost
estimates may vary significantly. FinCEN intends to conduct more
granular studies of the actions included in the proposed scope of the
supplemental annual PRA burden in the near future to arrive at more
precise estimates of net BSA hourly burden and cost.\24\ The data
obtained in these studies also may result in a significant variation of
the estimated traditional annual PRA burden.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\24\ Net hourly burden and cost are the burden and cost a
financial institution incurs to comply with requirements that are
unique to the BSA, and that do not support any other business
purpose or regulatory obligation of the financial institution.
Burden for purposes of the PRA does not include the time and
financial resources needed to comply with an information collection,
if the time and resources are for things a business (or other
person) does in the ordinary course of its activities if the agency
demonstrates that the reporting activities needed to comply are
usual and customary. 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2). For example, a financial
institution may be collecting and maintaining information on certain
transactions with designated FFAs in order to satisfy other
obligations including (i) protecting the financial institution from
fraud against itself or its customers, or (ii) complying with other
non-BSA regulatory requirements such as those imposed by the
specific Federal functional regulator.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated Recordkeeping Burden: The average estimated annual PRA
burden, measured in hours per respondent, is five hours and five
minutes (five burden hours to file reports of certain transactions with
designated FFAs, and five minutes to comply with recordkeeping
requirements).
Estimated Number of Respondents: 9, as noted above in Section II.
Estimated Total Annual Responses: 84 responses reporting on certain
transactions with designated FFAs annually; and 84 instances of
recordkeeping associated with these responses annually, as noted in
Section II.
Estimated Total Annual Recordkeeping Burden: The estimated total
annual PRA burden is 427 hours, as set out in Table 1.
Estimated Total Annual Recordkeeping Cost: The estimated total
annual PRA cost is $40,565, as set out in Table 4.
An Agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required
to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection of
information displays a valid OMB control number. Records required to be
retained under the BSA must be retained for five years.
Part 3. Request for Comments
(a) Specific request for comments on the traditional annual PRA
hourly burden and cost.
FinCEN invites comments on any aspect of the traditional annual PRA
burden, as set out in Part 1 of this notice. In particular, FinCEN
seeks comments on the adequacy of: (i) FinCEN's assumptions underlying
its estimate of the burden; (ii) the estimated number of hours required
by each portion of the burden; and (iii) the organizational levels of
the financial institution engaged in each portion of the burden, their
estimated hourly remuneration, and the estimated proportion of
participation by each role. FinCEN encourages commenters to include any
publicly available sources for alternative estimates or methodologies.
(b) Specific request for comments on the proposed criteria for
determining the scope of a supplemental annual PRA hourly burden and
cost estimate.
FinCEN invites comments on any aspect of the criteria for a future
estimate of the supplemental annual PRA burden, as set out in Part 2 of
this notice.
(c) Specific request for comments on the appropriate criteria,
methodology, and questionnaire required to obtain information to more
precisely estimate the supplemental annual PRA hourly burden and cost.
FinCEN invites comments on the most appropriate and comprehensive
means to question financial institutions about the annual hourly burden
and cost attributable solely to complying with the regulations that
require reports of transactions with designated FFAs.
The supplemental annual PRA hourly burden and cost estimate to
comply with the regulations that require reports of transactions with
designated FFAs must take into consideration only the effort involved
in obtaining those data elements that are used exclusively for
complying with requirements under 31 CFR 1010.360 and 31 CFR 1010.430,
respectively. Given the complexity in determining what portion of the
effort to include in the estimate, FinCEN seeks comments from the
public regarding any questions we should consider posing in future
notices, in addition to the specific questions for comment outlined
directly below.
Specific Questions for Comments
What is the burden to comply with requests for records
issued under the FFA regulations (31 CFR 1010.360 and 31 CFR 1010.430)?
How much time is spent on complying with the backward-
looking requirements of an FFA request?
How much time is spent on complying with the forward-
looking requirements of an FFA request?
Of the time spent on complying with backward- or forward-
looking reporting requirements, what percentage
[[Page 1484]]
is spent by an employee with the role of general oversight? Of general
supervision? Of direct supervision? Of clerical work? Of legal
compliance? Of computer support?
Are there employees with any other roles and corresponding
staff positions involved in filing reports of certain transactions with
designated FFAs?
Does your financial institution typically report the data
for requests that involve multiple designated FFAs in one report or
multiple reports for each tranche of reporting?
What challenges does your financial institution face or
overcome in complying with FFA regulations?
What can be done to improve transparency and communication
as part of the FFA reporting process?
General Request for Comments
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and/or included in the request for OMB approval. All comments will
become a matter of public record. Comments are invited on: (i) Whether
the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance
of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall
have practical utility; (ii) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of
the burden of the collection of information; (iii) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (iv)
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; and (v) estimates
of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and
purchase of services to provide information.
Himamauli Das,
Acting Director, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
[FR Doc. 2022-00332 Filed 1-10-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-02-P
