Proposed Collection; Comment Request, 72994-72997 [2022-25868]

Agencies

• FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 227 (Monday, November 28, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72994-72997]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-25868]


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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[No. 2022-N-14]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION: 30-Day notice of submission of information collection for 
approval from the 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) is seeking 
public comments concerning an information collection known as 
``Community Support Requirements,'' which has been assigned control 
number 2590-0005 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 September 30, 2023.

DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before December 28, 
2022.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer 
for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 20503, Fax: 
(202) 395-3047, Email: [email protected]. Please also submit 
comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed Collection; Comment Request: 
`Community Support Requirements, (No. 2022-N-14)' '' 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, Fourth 
Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: ``Community Support Requirements, (No. 
2022-N-14).'' Please note that all mail sent to FHFA via the U.S. 
Postal Service is routed through a national irradiation facility, a 
process that may delay delivery by approximately two weeks. For any 
time-sensitive correspondence, please plan accordingly.
    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.
    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: Mike Price, Senior Policy Analyst, by 
email at [email protected], by telephone at (202) 649-3134; 
Tiffani Moore, Supervisory Policy Analyst, by email at 
[email protected], by telephone at (202) 649-3304; or Angela 
Supervielle, Counsel, by email at [email protected], by 
telephone at (202) 649-3973 (these are not toll-free numbers). For TTY/
TRS users with hearing and speech disabilities, dial 711 and ask to be 
connected to any of the contact numbers above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

1. Paperwork Reduction Act

    Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501--3520), and its implementing 
regulation (5 CFR part 1320), Federal agencies must obtain approval 
from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. 
``Collection of information'' is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 
1320.3(c) to include agency collection of information from ten or more 
persons. Section 3507(b) of title 44 requires Federal agencies to 
provide a 30-day notice in the Federal Register for the public to 
provide comments to OMB \1\ concerning each proposed collection of 
information, including each proposed extension of an existing 
collection of information. 44 U.S.C. 3507(b); 5 CFR 1320.10(a). FHFA's 
collection of information set forth in this document is titled the 
``Community Support Requirements'' (assigned control number 2590-0005 
by OMB). To comply with the PRA requirement, FHFA is publishing this 
Notice of a proposed three-year extension of this collection of 
information.
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    \1\ The PRA requires Federal agencies to issue two notices 
seeking public comment on information collection activities before 
OMB may approve paperwork submissions. As required by section 
3506(c)(2)(A) of title 44 of the PRA, FHFA published the first 
required notice in the Federal Register on August 19, 2022 (87 FR 
51095) that provided a 60-day comment period for the public to 
submit comments to FHFA. 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A); 5 CFR 1320.8(d). 
This notice providing a 30-day comment period for the public to 
submit comments to OMB is the second required notice.
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2. Community Support Requirements

    The Federal Home Loan Bank System (System) consists of eleven 
regional Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and the Office of Finance, a 
joint office of the Banks that issues and services their 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 eligible non-member 
``housing associates.'' 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.
    Section 10(g)(1) of the Bank Act requires the Director of FHFA to 
promulgate regulations establishing standards of community investment 
or service that Bank member institutions must meet in order to maintain 
access to long-term Bank advances.2 3 Section 10(g)(2) of 
the Bank Act requires that, in establishing these community support 
requirements for Bank members, FHFA take into account factors such as 
the member's performance under the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 
(CRA) \4\ and record of lending to first-time homebuyers.\5\ FHFA's 
community support regulation, which establishes standards and review 
criteria for determining compliance with section 10(g) of the Bank Act, 
is set forth at 12 CFR part 1290.
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    \2\ 12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(1).
    \3\ For purposes of the community support requirements, a long-
term advance is an advance with a term of maturity greater than one 
year. 12 CFR 1290.1 (definition of ``long-term advance'').
    \4\ See 12 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.
    \5\ 12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(2).
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    Part 1290 requires that each Bank member subject to community 
support review submit to FHFA biennially a completed Community Support 
Statement (Form 060), which contains several short questions, the 
answers to which are used by FHFA to assess the responding member's 
compliance with the statutory and regulatory community

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support standards.\6\ Members are strongly encouraged to complete and 
submit Form 060 online, but may submit a version via email or fax if 
they cannot complete the submission online. In part I of Form 060, a 
member that is subject to the CRA must record its most recent CRA 
rating and the year of that rating. Part II of Form 060 addresses a 
member's efforts to assist first-time homebuyers. A member may either 
record the number and dollar amount of mortgage loans made to first-
time homebuyers in the previous or current calendar year (part II.A), 
or indicate the types of programs or activities it has undertaken to 
assist first-time homebuyers by checking selections from a list (part 
II.B), or do both. If a member has received a CRA rating of 
``Outstanding,'' it need not complete part II. A copy of the current 
Form 060 and related instructions appear at the end of this notice.
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    \6\ See 12 CFR 1290.2. Non-depository community development 
financial institutions and institutions that have been Bank members 
for less than one year as of March 31 of the year the Form 060 is 
due are not required to submit Form 060.
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    Part 1290 also establishes the circumstances under which FHFA will 
restrict a member's access to long-term Bank advances and to the Bank 
Affordable Housing Programs (AHP), Community Investment Programs (CIP), 
and Community Investment Cash Advance (CICA) programs for failure to 
meet the community support requirements.\7\ Part 1290 permits Bank 
members whose access to long-term advances has been restricted to apply 
directly to FHFA to remove the restriction.\8\
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    \7\ See 12 CFR 1290.5(b), (e).
    \8\ See 12 CFR 1290.5(d).
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B. Need for and Use of the Information Collection

    FHFA uses the information collection contained in FHFA Form 060 to 
determine whether Bank members satisfy the statutory and regulatory 
community support requirements, and to ensure that, as required by 
statute and regulation, only Bank members that meet those requirements 
maintain continued access to long-term Bank advances and to the Bank 
AHP, CIP, and CICA programs.
    The OMB control number for this information collection is 2590-
0005, which is due to expire on September 30, 2023. The respondents are 
Bank member institutions.

C. Burden Estimate

    FHFA has analyzed the two facets of this information collection to 
estimate the hour burdens that the collection will impose upon Bank 
members annually over the next three years. Based on that analysis, 
FHFA estimates that the total annual hour burden will be 1,884 hours. 
The method FHFA used to determine the annual hour burden for each facet 
of the information collection is explained in detail below.

1. Community Support Statements

    There are currently about 6,600 Bank members. With exceptions, most 
Bank members must submit a Community Support Statement biennially. Bank 
members that are non-depository community development financial 
institutions (CDFIs) are exempt from the submission requirement. 
Currently, there are 68 non-depository CDFI Bank members. Bank members 
who have been Bank members for less than one year as of March 31st of 
the year the submission is required are also exempt from filing. The 
Banks have lost, on average, 94 new members per year over the last 
three years. After subtracting the exempt members (68) and the 
estimated loss of 282 members (94 new members x 3 years) from the 
current membership of 6,600, FHFA arrives at a total estimate of about 
6,250 respondents required to submit Community Support Statements each 
biennial cycle. Under the Community Support biennial review cycle, 
members submit Community Support Statements every other year. 
Accordingly, FHFA estimates that the total number of respondents per 
year is about 3,125 (half of 6,250).
    FHFA estimates that the average preparation and submission time for 
each Community Support Statement is 0.6 hours. Therefore, the estimate 
for the total annual hour burden on Bank members in connection with the 
preparation and submission of Community Support Statements is, 1,875 
hours (3,125 Statements x 0.6 hours).

2. Requests To Remove a Restriction on Access to Long-Term Advances

    FHFA estimates that an annual average of 12 Bank members whose 
access to long-term Bank advances and to AHP, CIP, and CICA programs 
has been restricted will prepare and submit requests to FHFA to remove 
those restrictions, and that the average preparation time for each 
request will be 0.75 hours. Therefore, the estimate for the total 
annual hour burden on Bank members in connection with the preparation 
and submission of requests to remove a restriction on access to long-
term advances is 9 hours (12 requests x 0.75 hours).

D. Comment Request

    In accordance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(d), FHFA 
published an initial notice and request for public comments regarding 
this information collection in the Federal Register on August 19, 
2022.\9\ The 60-day comment period closed on October 18, 2022. FHFA 
received one comment letter that was not responsive to any of the 
questions in the notice and contained no comments relating to the 
Community Support Requirements or any issues arising under the PRA.
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    \9\ See 87 FR 51095 (Aug. 19, 2022).
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    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.

Shawn Bucholtz,
Chief Data Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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[FR Doc. 2022-25868 Filed 11-25-22; 8:45 am]
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