Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Services Surveys: BE-185, Quarterly Survey of Financial Services Transactions Between U.S. Financial Services Providers and Foreign Persons

The Department of Commerce will submit the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register on May 26, 2021, during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.

Agency: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce.

Title: Quarterly Survey of Transactions between U.S. Financial Services Providers and Foreign Persons.

OMB Control Number: 0608-0065.

Form Number(s): BE-185.

Type of Request: Regular submission, extension of a current information collection.

Number of Respondents: 2,860 annually (715 filed each quarter; 580 reporting mandatory data, and 135 that would file exemption claims or voluntary responses).

Average Hours per Response: 10 hours is the average for those reporting data and one hour is the average for those filing an exemption claim. Hours may vary considerably among respondents because of differences in company size and complexity.

Burden Hours: 24,140 hours annually.

Needs and Uses: The data are needed to monitor U.S. trade in financial services, to analyze the impact of these cross-border services on the U.S. and foreign economies, to compile and improve the U.S. economic accounts, to support U.S. commercial policy on trade in services, to conduct trade promotion, and to improve the ability of U.S. businesses to identify and evaluate market opportunities. The data are used in estimating the trade in financial services component of the U.S. international transactions accounts (ITAs) and national income and product accounts (NIPAs).

Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.

Frequency: Quarterly.

Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.

Legal Authority: International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act (Pub. L. 94-472, 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108, as amended), and Section 5408 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988.

This information collection request may be viewed at www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB Control Number 0608-0065.