80 FR 46988 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 151 (August 6, 2015)

Page Range		46988-46990
FR Document		2015-19378

The FTC intends to ask the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') to extend for an additional three years the current Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'') clearance \1\ for the FTC's shared enforcement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (``CFPB'') of the information collection requirements in subpart N of Regulation V (``Rule''). That clearance expires on December 31, 2015. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Federal Register, Volume 80 Issue 151 (Thursday, August 6, 2015)

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 151 (Thursday, August 6, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46988-46990]
From the Federal Register Online [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-19378]

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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'').

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC intends to ask the Office of Management and Budget
(``OMB'') to extend for an additional three years the current Paperwork
Reduction Act (``PRA'') clearance \1\ for the FTC's shared enforcement
with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (``CFPB'') of the
information collection requirements in subpart N of Regulation V
(``Rule''). That clearance expires on December 31, 2015.
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\1\ OMB Control No. 3084-0128.

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DATES: Comments must be filed by October 5, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Subpart N of
Regulation V, PRA Comment, P125403,'' on your comment and file your
comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/regulationVsubpartNpra by following the instructions on the web-based
form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, mail or deliver your
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex J),
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center,
400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC
20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be addressed to Ryan Mehm, Attorney, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, (202) 326-2918, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania
Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20580.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Overview of the Rule

The FTC shares enforcement authority with the CFPB for subpart N of
Regulation V.\2\ Subpart N requires nationwide consumer reporting
agencies and nationwide consumer specialty reporting agencies to
provide to consumers, upon request, one free file disclosure within any
12-month period. Generally, it requires the nationwide consumer
reporting agencies, as defined in section 603(p) of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act (``FCRA''), 15 U.S.C. 1681a(p), to create and operate a
centralized source that provides consumers with the ability to request
their free annual file disclosures from each of the nationwide consumer
reporting agencies through a centralized Internet Web site, toll-free
telephone number, and postal address. Subpart N also requires the
nationwide consumer reporting agencies to establish a standardized form
for Internet and mail requests for annual file disclosures, and
provides a model standardized form that may be used to comply with that
requirement. It additionally requires nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies, as defined in section 603(w) of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C.
1681a(w), to establish a streamlined process for consumers to request
annual file disclosures. This streamlined process must include a toll-
free telephone number for consumers to make such requests.
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\2\ Subpart N sets forth the former FTC's Free Annual File
Disclosures Rule that appeared under 16 CFR parts 610 and 698.
Rulemaking authority for this and several other FCRA rules was
transferred to the CFBP under title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Public Law 111-203, 124 Stat.
1376 (2010). Title X comprises sections 1001-100H (collectively, the
``Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010'').
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II. Burden Statement

Because the FTC shares enforcement authority with the CFPB for
subpart N, the two agencies split between them the related estimate of
PRA burden for firms under their co-enforcement jurisdiction. Estimated
PRA burden, excluding the halving (to be shown at the conclusion of
this analysis), are as follows:

A. Requests per Year From Consumers for Free Annual File Disclosures

The Consumer Data Industry Association had once stated that between
December 2004 and December

[[Page 46989]]

2006, the nationwide consumer reporting agencies provided over 52
million free annual file disclosures through the centralized Internet
Web site, toll-free telephone number, and postal address required to be
established by the FACT Act and subpart N,\3\ an annual rate of about
26 million requests per year. When it last sought clearance renewal for
the Rule, the FTC had been unable to obtain, through public comment or
otherwise, updated information on request volume. As a proxy, it then
assumed a volume of 30 million requests per year. We expect that the
number of requests for free annual credit reports will rise over the
next three years because of increases in the population and consumer
awareness that they are entitled to a free annual report. As a proxy,
we will now use an estimate of 35 million requests per year as a
representative average year to estimate PRA burden for purposes of the
instant analysis.
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\3\ Letter from Stuart K. Pratt, President & CEO, Consumer Data
Industry Association, to Rep. Barney Frank, Committee on Financial
Services, U.S. House of Representatives (Dec. 1, 2006).
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The Commission, however, seeks more recent estimates of the number
of requests consumers are making for free annual credit reports. In
addition to data on the number of requests, data on how the number of
requests has changed over time, and how these requests are being
received--by Internet, phone, or by mail--would be most helpful.

B. Annual File Disclosures Provided Through the Internet

Both nationwide and nationwide specialty consumer reporting
agencies will likely handle the overwhelming majority of consumer
requests through Internet Web sites. The annual file disclosure
requests processed through the Internet will not impose any hours
burden per request on the nationwide and nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies. However, consumer reporting agencies periodically
will be required to adjust the Internet capacity needed to handle the
changing request volume. Consumer reporting agencies likely will make
such adjustments by negotiating or renegotiating outsourcing service
contracts annually or as conditions change. Trained personnel will need
to spend time negotiating and renegotiating such contracts. Commission
staff estimates that negotiating such contracts will require a
cumulative total of 8,320 hours and $545,126 in labor costs.\4\ Such
activity is treated as an annual burden of maintaining and adjusting
the changing Internet capacity requirements.
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\4\ Based on the time necessary for similar activity in the
federal government (including at the FTC), staff estimates that such
contracting and administration will require approximately 4 full-
time equivalent employees (``FTE'') for the web service contracts.
Thus, staff estimates that administering the contract will require 4
FTE, which is 8,320 hours per year (4 FTE x 2,080 hours/year). The
cost is based on the reported May 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) rate ($65.52) for computer and information systems managers.
See Occupational Employment and Wages--May 2014, Table 1, available
at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm. Thus, the
estimated setup and maintenance cost for an Internet system is
$545,126 per year (8,320 hours x $65.52/hour).
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C. Annual File Disclosures Requested Over the Telephone

Most of the telephone requests for annual file disclosures will
also be handled in an automated fashion, without any additional
personnel needed to process the requests. As with the Internet,
consumer reporting agencies will require additional time and investment
to increase and administer the automated telephone capacity for the
expected increase in request volume. The nationwide and nationwide
specialty consumer reporting agencies will likely make such adjustments
by negotiating or renegotiating outsourcing service contracts annually
or as conditions change. Staff estimates that this will require a total
of 6,240 hours at a cost of $408,845 in labor costs.\5\ This activity
also is treated as an annual recurring burden necessary to obtain,
maintain, and adjust automated call center capacity.
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\5\ Staff estimates that recurring contracting for automated
telephone capacity will require approximately 3 FTE, a total of
6,240 hours (3 x 2,080 hours). Applying an hourly wage rate of
$65.52 (see supra note 4), estimated setup and maintenance cost is
$408,845 (6,240 x $65.52) per year.
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D. Annual File Disclosures Requiring Processing by Mail

Based on their knowledge of the industry, staff believes that no
more than 1% of consumers (1% x 35 million, or 350,000) will request an
annual file disclosure through U.S. postal service mail. Staff
estimates that clerical personnel will require 10 minutes per request
to handle these requests, thereby totaling 58,333 hours of time.
[(350,000 x 10 minutes)/60 minutes = 58,333 hours]
In addition, whenever the requesting consumer cannot be identified
using an automated method (a Web site or automated telephone service),
it will be necessary to redirect that consumer to send identifying
material along with the request by mail. Staff estimates that this will
occur in about 5% of the new requests (or 1,732,500 \6\) that were
originally placed over the Internet or telephone. Staff estimates that
clerical personnel will require approximately 10 minutes per request to
input and process those redirected requests for a cumulative total of
288,750 clerical hours. [(1,732,500 x 10 minutes)/60 minutes = 288,750
hours]
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\6\ This figure reflects five percent of all requests, net of
the estimated one percent of all requests that might initially be
made by mail. That is, .05 x (35,000,000 - 350,000) = 1,732,500.
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E. Instructions to Consumers

The Rule also requires that certain instructions be provided to
consumers. See Rule sections 1022.136(b)(2)(iv)(A,B),
1022.137(a)(2)(iii)(A,B). Minimal associated time or cost is involved,
however. Internet instructions to consumers are embedded in the
centralized source Web site and do not require additional time or cost
for the nationwide consumer reporting agencies. Similarly, for
telephone requests, the automated phone systems provide the requisite
instructions when consumers select certain options. Some consumers who
request their credit reports by mail might additionally request printed
instructions from the nationwide and nationwide specialty consumer
reporting agencies. Staff estimates that there will be a total of
2,082,500 requests each year for free annual file disclosures by
mail.\7\ Based on their knowledge of the industry, staff estimates
that, of the predicted 2,082,500 mail requests, 10% (or 208,250) will
request instructions by mail. If printed instructions are sent to each
of these consumers by mail, requiring 10 minutes of clerical time per
consumer, this will total 34,708 hours. [(208,250 instructions x 10
minutes)/60 minutes per hour].
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\7\ This figure includes both the estimated 1% of 35 million
requests that will be made by mail each year (350,000), and the
estimated 1,732,500 requests initially made over the Internet or
telephone that will be redirected to the mail process (see supra
note 6).
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F. Labor Costs

Labor costs are derived by applying hourly cost figures to the
burden hours described above. Staff anticipates that processing of
requests for annual file disclosures and instructions will be performed
by clerical personnel, and estimates that the processing will require
327,250 hours at a cost of $6,322,459. [(58,333 hours for handling
initial mail request + 288,750 hours for handling requests redirected
to mail + 34,708 hours for handling instructions

[[Page 46990]]

mailed to consumers) x $16.56 per hour.\8\]
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\8\ See Occupational Employment and Wages--May 2014, Table 1,
available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm (Office
and administrative support workers, general).
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As elaborated on above, staff estimates that a total of 14,560
labor hours will be needed to negotiate or renegotiate outsourced
service contracts annually (or as conditions otherwise change) to
increase internet (8,320 hours) and telephone (6,240 hours) capacity
requirements for internet web services and the automated telephone call
center. This will result in approximately $953,971 per year in labor
costs. [14,560 hours x $65.52 per hour \9\]
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\9\ See supra notes 4 and 5.
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Thus, estimated cumulative labor will costs are $7,276,430.

G. Capital/Non-Labor Costs

As in the previous PRA clearance analysis, FTC staff believes it is
likely that consumer reporting agencies will use third-party
contractors (instead of their own employees) to increase the capacity
of their systems. Because of the way these contracts are typically
established, these costs will likely be incurred on a continuing basis,
and will be calculated based on the number of requests handled by the
systems. Staff estimates that the total annual amount to be paid for
services delivered under these contracts is $11,931,500.\10\
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\10\ This consists of an estimated $7,913,500 for automated
telephone cost ($1.33 per request x 5.95 million requests) and an
estimated $4,018,000 ($0.14 per request x 28.7 million requests) for
Internet web service cost. Per unit cost estimates are based on
staff's knowledge of the industry.
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H. Net Burden for FTC, After 50:50 Split

After halving the updated estimates to split the PRA burden with
the CFPB regarding the Rule, the FTC's burden totals are 198,176 hours,
$3,638,215 in associated labor costs, and $5,965,750 in non-labor/
capital costs.

III. Request for Comment

You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before October 5, 2015.
Write ``Subpart N of Regulation V, PRA Comment, P125403'' on your
comment. Your comment--including your name and your state--will be
placed on the public record of this proceeding, including to the extent
practicable, on the public Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of discretion, the Commission tries
to remove individuals' home contact information from comments before
placing them on the Commission Web site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which is . . . privileged or confidential'' as provided in section 6(f)
of the FTC Act 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas,
patterns devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c).\11\ Your comment will be kept confidential only if
the FTC General Counsel grants your request in accordance with the law
and the public interest.
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\11\ In particular, the written request for confidential
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/regulationVsubpartNpra, by following the instructions on the web-
based form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Subpart N of Regulation
V, PRA Comment, P125403'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail
or deliver it to the following address: Federal Trade Commission,
Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street, SW. 5th
Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit
your paper comment to the Commission by courier or overnight service.
The FTC Act and other laws that the Commission administers permit
the collection of public comments to consider and use in this
proceeding as appropriate. The Commission will consider all timely and
responsive public comments that it receives on or before October 5,
2015. For information on the Commission's privacy policy, including
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

David C. Shonka,
Principal Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2015-19378 Filed 8-5-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P

46988 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 151 / Thursday, August 6, 2015 / Notices

Reserve Bank indicated. The notices President), 1 Memorial Drive, Kansas should be addressed to Ryan Mehm,
also will be available for inspection at City, Missouri 64198–0001: Attorney, Bureau of Consumer
the offices of the Board of Governors. 1. Equity Bancshares, Inc., Wichita, Protection, (202) 326–2918, Federal
Interested persons may express their Kansas; to acquire First Independence Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania
views in writing to the Reserve Bank Corporation, and indirectly acquire First Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20580.
indicated for that notice or to the offices Federal Savings and Loan Association of SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
of the Board of Governors. Comments Independence, both in Independence,
must be received not later than August Kansas, and thereby engage in the I. Overview of the Rule
21, 2015. operation of a savings association, The FTC shares enforcement authority
A. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago pursuant to section 225.28(b)(4)(ii). with the CFPB for subpart N of
(Colette A. Fried, Assistant Vice Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Regulation V.2 Subpart N requires
President) 230 South LaSalle Street, System, August 3, 2015. nationwide consumer reporting agencies
Chicago, Illinois 60690–1414: Michael J. Lewandowski, and nationwide consumer specialty
1. Oxford Exempt Trust, Oak Brook, reporting agencies to provide to
Associate Secretary of the Board.
Illinois; to acquire, and George P. Colis; consumers, upon request, one free file
[FR Doc. 2015–19313 Filed 8–5–15; 8:45 am]
John N. Colis; Leslie Colis-Ward; and disclosure within any 12-month period.
Valerie Colis; as trustees of the Oxford BILLING CODE 6210–01–P
Generally, it requires the nationwide
Exempt Trust, to acquire or retain voting consumer reporting agencies, as defined
shares of the Oxford Financial in section 603(p) of the Fair Credit
Corporation, and thereby indirectly FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Reporting Act (‘‘FCRA’’), 15 U.S.C.
retain voting shares of Oxford Bank and 1681a(p), to create and operate a
Trust, both in Oak Brook, Illinois. Agency Information Collection
Activities; Proposed Collection; centralized source that provides
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Comment Request; Extension consumers with the ability to request
System, August 3, 2015. their free annual file disclosures from
Michael J. Lewandowski, AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission each of the nationwide consumer
Associate Secretary of the Board. (‘‘FTC’’ or ‘‘Commission’’). reporting agencies through a centralized
[FR Doc. 2015–19314 Filed 8–5–15; 8:45 am] ACTION: Notice. Internet Web site, toll-free telephone
BILLING CODE 6210–01–P number, and postal address. Subpart N
SUMMARY: The FTC intends to ask the also requires the nationwide consumer
Office of Management and Budget reporting agencies to establish a
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM (‘‘OMB’’) to extend for an additional standardized form for Internet and mail
three years the current Paperwork requests for annual file disclosures, and
Notice of Proposals to Engage in or To Reduction Act (‘‘PRA’’) clearance 1 for provides a model standardized form that
Acquire Companies Engaged in the FTC’s shared enforcement with the may be used to comply with that
Permissible Nonbanking Activities Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requirement. It additionally requires
(‘‘CFPB’’) of the information collection nationwide specialty consumer
The companies listed in this notice requirements in subpart N of Regulation
have given notice under section 4 of the reporting agencies, as defined in section
V (‘‘Rule’’). That clearance expires on 603(w) of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. 1681a(w),
Bank Holding Company Act (12 U.S.C. December 31, 2015.
1843) (BHC Act) and Regulation Y, (12 to establish a streamlined process for
DATES: Comments must be filed by consumers to request annual file
CFR part 225) to engage de novo, or to
October 5, 2015. disclosures. This streamlined process
acquire or control voting securities or
assets of a company, including the ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a must include a toll-free telephone
companies listed below, that engages comment online or on paper, by number for consumers to make such
either directly or through a subsidiary or following the instructions in the requests.
other company, in a nonbanking activity Request for Comment part of the
II. Burden Statement
that is listed in § 225.28 of Regulation Y SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section
(12 CFR 225.28) or that the Board has below. Write ‘‘Subpart N of Regulation Because the FTC shares enforcement
determined by Order to be closely V, PRA Comment, P125403,’’ on your authority with the CFPB for subpart N,
related to banking and permissible for comment and file your comment online the two agencies split between them the
bank holding companies. Unless at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ related estimate of PRA burden for firms
otherwise noted, these activities will be ftc/regulationVsubpartNpra by under their co-enforcement jurisdiction.
conducted throughout the United States. following the instructions on the web- Estimated PRA burden, excluding the
Each notice is available for inspection based form. If you prefer to file your halving (to be shown at the conclusion
at the Federal Reserve Bank indicated. comment on paper, mail or deliver your of this analysis), are as follows:
The notice also will be available for comment to the following address: A. Requests per Year From Consumers
inspection at the offices of the Board of Federal Trade Commission, Office of the for Free Annual File Disclosures
Governors. Interested persons may Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW., Suite CC–5610 (Annex J), The Consumer Data Industry
express their views in writing on the
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your Association had once stated that
question whether the proposal complies
comment to the following address: between December 2004 and December
with the standards of section 4 of the
BHC Act. Federal Trade Commission, Office of the
2 Subpart N sets forth the former FTC’s Free
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES

Unless otherwise noted, comments Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th
Annual File Disclosures Rule that appeared under
regarding the notices must be received Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 16 CFR parts 610 and 698. Rulemaking authority for
at the Reserve Bank indicated or the (Annex J), Washington, DC 20024. this and several other FCRA rules was transferred
offices of the Board of Governors not FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: to the CFBP under title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Public
later than August 31, 2015. Requests for additional information Law 111–203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010). Title X
A. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas comprises sections 1001–100H (collectively, the
City (Dennis Denney, Assistant Vice 1 OMB Control No. 3084–0128. ‘‘Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010’’).

VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:50 Aug 05, 2015 Jkt 235001 PO 00000 Frm 00042 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 E:\FR\FM\06AUN1.SGM 06AUN1

Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 151 / Thursday, August 6, 2015 / Notices 46989

2006, the nationwide consumer is treated as an annual burden of requests (or 1,732,500 6) that were
reporting agencies provided over 52 maintaining and adjusting the changing originally placed over the Internet or
million free annual file disclosures Internet capacity requirements. telephone. Staff estimates that clerical
through the centralized Internet Web personnel will require approximately 10
C. Annual File Disclosures Requested
site, toll-free telephone number, and minutes per request to input and
postal address required to be established Over the Telephone
process those redirected requests for a
by the FACT Act and subpart N,3 an Most of the telephone requests for cumulative total of 288,750 clerical
annual rate of about 26 million requests annual file disclosures will also be hours. [(1,732,500 × 10 minutes)/60
per year. When it last sought clearance handled in an automated fashion, minutes = 288,750 hours]
renewal for the Rule, the FTC had been without any additional personnel
unable to obtain, through public E. Instructions to Consumers
needed to process the requests. As with
comment or otherwise, updated the Internet, consumer reporting The Rule also requires that certain
information on request volume. As a agencies will require additional time instructions be provided to consumers.
proxy, it then assumed a volume of 30 and investment to increase and See Rule sections
million requests per year. We expect administer the automated telephone 1022.136(b)(2)(iv)(A,B),
that the number of requests for free capacity for the expected increase in 1022.137(a)(2)(iii)(A,B). Minimal
annual credit reports will rise over the request volume. The nationwide and associated time or cost is involved,
next three years because of increases in nationwide specialty consumer
the population and consumer awareness however. Internet instructions to
reporting agencies will likely make such consumers are embedded in the
that they are entitled to a free annual adjustments by negotiating or
report. As a proxy, we will now use an centralized source Web site and do not
renegotiating outsourcing service require additional time or cost for the
estimate of 35 million requests per year contracts annually or as conditions
as a representative average year to nationwide consumer reporting
change. Staff estimates that this will agencies. Similarly, for telephone
estimate PRA burden for purposes of the require a total of 6,240 hours at a cost
instant analysis. requests, the automated phone systems
of $408,845 in labor costs.5 This activity provide the requisite instructions when
The Commission, however, seeks also is treated as an annual recurring
more recent estimates of the number of consumers select certain options. Some
burden necessary to obtain, maintain, consumers who request their credit
requests consumers are making for free and adjust automated call center
annual credit reports. In addition to data reports by mail might additionally
capacity. request printed instructions from the
on the number of requests, data on how
the number of requests has changed D. Annual File Disclosures Requiring nationwide and nationwide specialty
over time, and how these requests are Processing by Mail consumer reporting agencies. Staff
being received—by Internet, phone, or estimates that there will be a total of
Based on their knowledge of the 2,082,500 requests each year for free
by mail—would be most helpful.
industry, staff believes that no more annual file disclosures by mail.7 Based
B. Annual File Disclosures Provided than 1% of consumers (1% × 35 million, on their knowledge of the industry, staff
Through the Internet or 350,000) will request an annual file estimates that, of the predicted
Both nationwide and nationwide disclosure through U.S. postal service 2,082,500 mail requests, 10% (or
specialty consumer reporting agencies mail. Staff estimates that clerical 208,250) will request instructions by
will likely handle the overwhelming personnel will require 10 minutes per mail. If printed instructions are sent to
majority of consumer requests through request to handle these requests, thereby each of these consumers by mail,
Internet Web sites. The annual file totaling 58,333 hours of time. [(350,000 requiring 10 minutes of clerical time per
disclosure requests processed through × 10 minutes)/60 minutes = 58,333 consumer, this will total 34,708 hours.
the Internet will not impose any hours hours] [(208,250 instructions × 10 minutes)/60
burden per request on the nationwide In addition, whenever the requesting minutes per hour].
and nationwide specialty consumer consumer cannot be identified using an
F. Labor Costs
reporting agencies. However, consumer automated method (a Web site or
reporting agencies periodically will be automated telephone service), it will be Labor costs are derived by applying
required to adjust the Internet capacity necessary to redirect that consumer to hourly cost figures to the burden hours
needed to handle the changing request send identifying material along with the described above. Staff anticipates that
volume. Consumer reporting agencies request by mail. Staff estimates that this processing of requests for annual file
likely will make such adjustments by will occur in about 5% of the new disclosures and instructions will be
negotiating or renegotiating outsourcing performed by clerical personnel, and
service contracts annually or as time equivalent employees (‘‘FTE’’) for the web estimates that the processing will
conditions change. Trained personnel service contracts. Thus, staff estimates that require 327,250 hours at a cost of
will need to spend time negotiating and administering the contract will require 4 FTE,
which is 8,320 hours per year (4 FTE × 2,080 hours/ $6,322,459. [(58,333 hours for handling
renegotiating such contracts. year). The cost is based on the reported May 2014 initial mail request + 288,750 hours for
Commission staff estimates that Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) rate ($65.52) for handling requests redirected to mail +
negotiating such contracts will require a computer and information systems managers. See 34,708 hours for handling instructions
cumulative total of 8,320 hours and Occupational Employment and Wages—May 2014,
Table 1, available at http://www.bls.gov/
$545,126 in labor costs.4 Such activity news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm. Thus, the estimated 6 This figure reflects five percent of all requests,

setup and maintenance cost for an Internet system net of the estimated one percent of all requests that
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES

3 Letter from Stuart K. Pratt, President & CEO, is $545,126 per year (8,320 hours × $65.52/hour). might initially be made by mail. That is, .05 ×
Consumer Data Industry Association, to Rep. 5 Staff estimates that recurring contracting for (35,000,000 ¥ 350,000) = 1,732,500.
Barney Frank, Committee on Financial Services, automated telephone capacity will require 7 This figure includes both the estimated 1% of
U.S. House of Representatives (Dec. 1, 2006). approximately 3 FTE, a total of 6,240 hours (3 × 35 million requests that will be made by mail each
4 Based on the time necessary for similar activity 2,080 hours). Applying an hourly wage rate of year (350,000), and the estimated 1,732,500 requests
in the federal government (including at the FTC), $65.52 (see supra note 4), estimated setup and initially made over the Internet or telephone that
staff estimates that such contracting and maintenance cost is $408,845 (6,240 × $65.52) per will be redirected to the mail process (see supra
administration will require approximately 4 full- year. note 6).

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Document Created: 2018-02-23 10:55:48
Document Modified: 2018-02-23 10:55:48

Category		Regulatory Information
Collection		Federal Register
sudoc Class		AE 2.7: GS 4.107: AE 2.106:
Publisher		Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration
Section		Notices
Action		Notice.
Dates		Comments must be filed by October 5, 2015.
Contact		Requests for additional information
FR Citation		80 FR 46988