Agency Information Collection Activities Under OMB Review

AGENCY:

Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (“PRA”), this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (“ICR”) abstracted below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) for review and comment. The ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its expected costs and burden.

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before March 29, 2019.

ADDRESSES:

Comments regarding the burden estimated or any other aspect of the information collection, including suggestions for reducing the burden, may be submitted directly to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) in OMB, within 30 days of the notice's publication Comments regarding the burden estimated or any other aspect of the information collection, including suggestions for reducing the burden, may be submitted directly to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) in OMB, within 30 days of the notice's publication, by either of the following methods. Please identify the comments by “OMB Control No. 3038-0043.”

• By email addressed to: OIRAsubmissions@omb.eop.gov or
• By mail addressed to: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention Desk Officer for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 725 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20503.

A copy of all comments submitted to OIRA should be sent to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission) by either of the following methods. The copies should refer to “OMB Control No. 3038-0085.”

• By mail addressed to: Christopher Kirkpatrick, Secretary of the Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20581;
• By Hand Delivery/Courier to the same address; or
• Through the Commission's website at http://comments.cftc.gov. Please follow the instructions for submitting comments through the website.

A copy of the supporting statement for the collection of information discussed herein may be obtained by visiting http://RegInfo.gov.

All comments must be submitted in English, or if not, accompanied by an English translation. Comments will be posted as received to http://www.cftc.gov. You should submit only information that you wish to make available publicly. If you wish the Commission to consider information that you believe is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, a petition for confidential treatment of the exempt information may be submitted according to the procedures established in § 145.9 of the Commission's regulations. The Commission reserves the right, but shall have no obligation, to review, pre-screen, filter, redact, refuse or remove any or all of your submission from http://www.cftc.gov that it may deem to be inappropriate for publication, such as obscene language. All submissions that have been redacted or removed that contain comments on the merits of the ICR will be retained in the public comment file and will be considered as required under the Administrative Procedure Act and other applicable laws, and may be accessible under the Freedom of Information Act.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Melissa Chiang, Counsel, Office of General Counsel, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, (202) 418-5578; email: mchiang@cftc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: Rules Relating to Review of National Futures Association Decisions in Disciplinary, Membership Denial, Registration, and Member Responsibility Actions (OMB Control No. 3038-0043). This is a request for extension of a currently approved information collection.

Abstract: 17 CFR part 171 rules require a registered futures association to provide fair and orderly procedures for membership and disciplinary actions. The Commission's review of decisions of registered futures associations in disciplinary, membership denial, registration, and member responsibility actions is governed by Section 17(h)(2) of the Commodity Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. 21(h)(2). The rules establish procedures and standards for Commission review of such actions, and the reporting requirements included in the procedural rules are either directly required by Section 17 of the Act or are necessary to the type of appellate review role Congress intended the Commission to undertake when it adopted that provision.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for the Commission's regulations were published on December 30, 1981. See 46 FR 63035 (Dec. 30, 1981). The Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on this collection of information was published on November 14, 2018 (83 FR 56827). The Commission received no relevant comments.

Burden Statement: The respondent burden for this collection is estimated to average 1 hour per response. This estimate includes the time needed to transmit decisions of disciplinary, membership denial, registration, and member responsibility actions to the Commission for review. The total estimated annual burden of 3 hours is determined by the following:

Respondents/Affected Entities: Individuals or entities filing appeals from disciplinary and membership decisions by National Futures Association.

Estimated number of respondents: 1.

Estimated number of responses: 3.

Estimated total annual burden on respondents: 3 hours.

Frequency of collection: On occasion.

There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection.

(Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.)