Agency Information Collection Activities: Renewal of an Information Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

ACTION:

Notice and request for comment.

SUMMARY:

The FDIC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on the proposed renewal of an information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35). Currently, the FDIC is soliciting comments concerning an information collection titled “Occasional Qualitative Surveys.”

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before April 12, 2004.

ADDRESSES:

Interested parties are invited to submit written comments to Steve Hanft, Paperwork Clearance Officer, Legal Division, Room MB-3064, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 550 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20429. All comments should refer to “Occasional Qualitative Surveys.” Comments may be hand-delivered to the guard station at the rear of the 17th Street Building (located on F Street), on business days between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Comments may also be submitted to the OMB desk officer for the FDIC: Joseph F. Lackey, Jr., Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10236, Washington, DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Steve Hanft, (202) 898-3907, or at the address above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Proposal to renew the following currently approved collection of information:

Title: Occasional Qualitative Surveys.

OMB Number: 3064-0127.

Frequency of Response: On occasion.

Affected Public: Financial institutions, their customers, and members of the public generally.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 5,000.

Estimated time per response: 1 hour.

Estimated Total Annual Burden: 5,000 hours.

General Description of Collection: This collection involves the occasional use of qualitative surveys to gather anecdotal information about regulatory burden, bank customer satisfaction, problems or successes in the bank supervisory process (both safety-and-soundness and consumer related), and similar concerns. In general, these surveys would not involve more than 500 respondents, would not require more than one hour per respondent, and would be completely voluntary. It is not contemplated that more than ten such surveys would be completed in any given year.

Request for Comment

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the FDIC's functions, including whether the information has practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the estimates of the burden of the information collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the information collection on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

At the end of the comment period, the comments and recommendations received will be analyzed to determine the extent to which the collection should be modified prior to submission to OMB for review and approval. Comments submitted in response to this notice also will be summarized or included in the FDIC's requests to OMB for renewal of this collection. All comments will become a matter of public record.