2021-04666
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 43 (Monday, March 8, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 43 (Monday, March 8, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13343-13345]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-04666]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION
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
Information and Regulatory Affairs (``OIRA''), of 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 April 7, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the information
collection should be submitted within 30 days of this notice's
publication to OIRA, at https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
Please find this particular information collection by selecting
``Currently under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using
the website's search function. Comments can be entered electronically
by clicking on the ``comment'' button next to the information
collection on the ``OIRA Information Collections Under Review'' page,
or the ``View ICR--Agency Submission'' page. A copy of the supporting
statement for the collection of information discussed herein may be
obtained by visiting https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
In addition to the submission of comments to https://Reginfo.gov as
indicated above, a copy of all comments submitted to OIRA may also be
submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the
``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') by clicking on the ``Submit Comment'' box
next to the descriptive entry for OMB Control No. 3038-0096, at https://comments.cftc.gov/FederalRegister/PublicInfo.aspx.
Or by either of the following methods:
Mail: Christopher Kirkpatrick, Secretary of the
Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette
Centre, 1155 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20581.
Hand Delivery/Courier: Same as Mail above.
All comments must be submitted in English, or if not, accompanied
by an English translation. Comments submitted to the Commission should
include 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 Sec. 145.9 of the
Commission's regulations.\1\ 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 https://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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ 17 CFR 145.9.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 13344]]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Meghan Tente, Division of Data,
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, (202) 418-5785, email:
_____________________________________-
[email protected], and refer to OMB Control No. 3038-0096.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Swap Data Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements (OMB
Control No. 3038-0096). This is a request for comment on revision of a
currently approved information collection.
Abstract: The collection of information is needed to ensure that
the CFTC and other regulators have access to swap data as required by
the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``Dodd-Frank Act'').\2\ The Dodd-
Frank Act directed the CFTC to adopt rules providing for the reporting
of data relating to swaps.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Public Law 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
On September 17, 2020, the Commission adopted a rulemaking amending
its part 45 regulations.\3\ In the release accompanying the final rule,
the Commission included some estimated costs and burdens that were not
included in the Proposal and made corrections to some of its previous
estimates. The Commission explains these cost and burden estimates
below.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ The Commission proposed the amendments to Part 45 in
February 2020. Swap Data Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements,
75 FR 21578 (Apr. 17, 2020) (the ``Proposal''). The final rule was
published in the Federal Register, 85 FR 75503 (Nov. 25, 2020).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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. On December 2, 2020, the Commission
published in the Federal Register notice of the proposed revision of
this information collection and provided 60 days for public comment on
the proposed revision, 85 FR 77435 (``60-Day Notice''). The Commission
did not receive any comments on the 60-Day Notice.
1. Amendments to Regulation 45.3
Amended Sec. 45.3 creates costs for swap data repositories
(``SDRs''), swap execution facilities (``SEFs''), designated contract
markets (``DCMs''), and reporting counterparties to update systems for
reporting required swap creation data reports. For the Proposal, the
Commission estimated SDRs, SEFs, DCMs, and reporting counterparties
would incur a one-time initial burden of 10 hours per entity to modify
their systems to adopt the changes, for a total estimated hours burden
of 17,320 hours. The cost per entity was estimated to be $722.30 for a
total cost across entities of $1,251,024. The Commission additionally
estimated 5 hours per entity annually to perform any needed maintenance
or adjustments to reporting systems, at a cost of $361.15 per entity
and $625,512 across entities.\4\ The Commission re-evaluated the
analysis in the final rule and instead used a wage estimate of between
$48 and $101 \5\ per hour and revised its estimate of the one-time
initial cost per SDR to be in a range of $144,000 to $1,010,000 for PRA
purposes, based on 3,000 to 10,000 hours of work per SDR.\6\ Using
these revised estimates, the Commission estimated an average estimated
cost of $577,000 per SDR to update their systems, or estimated capital/
start-up costs of $1,731,000 across all 3 SDRs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ The PRA section of the Proposal included one-time and
ongoing burden hour estimates for entities to modify their systems.
The associated cost estimates referenced above were included in the
related Supporting Statement filed with OMB for the Proposal.
\5\ Hourly wage rates for this aspect came from the Software
Developers and Programmers category of the May 2019 National
Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates Report produced by the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm. The 25th percentile was used for the low
range and the 90th percentile was used for the upper range ($36.89
and $78.06, respectively). Each number was multiplied by an
adjustment factor of 1.3 for overhead and benefits (rounded to the
nearest whole dollar) which is in line with adjustment factors the
CFTC has used for similar purposes in other final rules adopted
under the Dodd-Frank Act. See, e.g., 77 FR at 2173 (using an
adjustment factor of 1.3 for overhead and other benefits). These
estimates are intended to capture and reflect U.S. developer hourly
rates market participants are likely to pay when complying with the
changes. Individual entities may, based on their circumstances,
incur costs substantially greater or less than the estimated
averages.
\6\ The lower estimate of $144,000 represents 3,000 working
hours at the $48 rate. The higher estimate of $1,010,000 represents
10,000 working hours at the $101 rate. The PRA section of the final
rule incorrectly stated that the $1,010,000 estimate at the higher
end of the range was based on 5,000 working hours. However, in
response to a comment indicating that the commenter expected its
costs to be 8,000 to 10,000 developer hours, the Commission expanded
the range of potential costs per SDR to between $144,000 and
$1,010,000 for PRA purposes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
With regard to reporting entities, the PRA section of the Proposal
inadvertently did not include any estimates of initial costs to update
systems for SEFs, DCMs, and reporting counterparties. In the final
rule, the Commission estimated that SEFs, DCMs, and reporting
counterparties will incur a one-time initial cost per reporting entity
in a range of $24,000 to $73,225 per reporting entity, with each
reporting entity spending approximately 500 to 725 hours on the
updates.\7\ Rather than base the Commission's PRA estimates of the
total upfront implementation cost for reporting entities on arithmetic
averages, the Commission recognized that reporting entities are already
subject to existing swaps data reporting and recordkeeping obligations
pursuant to Part 45, so it is likely that reporting entities will only
need to reprogram their existing reporting systems, instead of building
new reporting systems, to comply with the final rule. Furthermore,
through the Commission's eight years of experience in administering
Part 45, the Commission believes that the 1,732 reporting entities are
a relatively consistent group, such that most entities that are
currently reporting entities under Part 45 will continue to be
reporting entities under the final rule, and few entities that are not
currently reporting entities under Part 45 will become reporting
entities under the final rule. Because most reporting entities will
only need to reprogram their existing reporting systems, the Commission
believes that the upfront cost to reporting entities to implement the
final rule will be on the lower end of the range, closer to $24,000
than to $73,225. Therefore, the Commission based its PRA estimates on a
more realistic split of 90%/10% between existing reporting entities and
new reporting entities, which resulted in a weighted average cost of
$28,923 per reporting entity ($24,000 * 0.9 + $73,225 * 0.1), or a
total upfront implementation cost of $50,094,636 for the 1,732
reporting entities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ The lower estimate of $24,000 represents 500 working hours
at the $48 rate. The higher estimate of $73,225 represents 725
working hours at the $101 rate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Together, the Commission estimated the total aggregate upfront
implementation cost in the final rule to be $51,825,636 ($50,094,636
for reporting entities and $1,731,000 for SDRs). The Commission does
not expect any ongoing costs for SDRs or reporting entities after the
initial builds.
2. Amendments to Regulation 45.4
The Commission amended Sec. 45.4, which requires reporting
counterparties to report data to SDRs when swap terms change and daily
swap valuation data. The PRA section of the Proposal estimated that
proposed Sec. 45.4 would apply to 1,705 respondents, with 97,341
reports per respondent, .004 average hours per report, and a gross
annual reporting burden of 664,479 hours. In the final rule, the
Commission expanded the daily valuation data reporting requirement for
SD/MSP reporting counterparties to report margin and collateral data in
addition to valuation data. This is a change from the
[[Page 13345]]
Proposal, in which the Commission proposed requiring derivatives
clearing organization (``DCO'') counterparties to report the
information as well. The frequency of the report will not change for
SD/MSP reporting counterparties, but the Commission estimated SD/MSP/
DCO reporting counterparties would require more time to prepare each
report. However, since all of this information is reported
electronically, the Commission expected the increase per report to be
small, from .003 to .004 hours per report. Since the Commission is not
requiring DCO reporting counterparties to report the information, the
Commission revised its estimate to .0035 hours per report. As a result,
in the final rule the aggregate burden under Sec. 45.4 was estimated
to apply to 1,705 respondents, with 97,341 reports per respondent,
.0035 average hours per report, and a gross annual reporting burden of
581,419 hours.
Amended Sec. 45.4 creates costs for SDRs and reporting
counterparties to update systems for reporting required swap
continuation data. For the Proposal, the Commission estimated SDRs and
reporting counterparties would incur a one-time initial burden of 10
hours per entity to modify their systems to adopt the changes to Sec.
45.4, for a total estimated hours burden of 17,050 hours. The cost per
entity was estimated to be $722.30 for a total cost across entities of
$1,231,522. The Commission additionally estimated 5 hours per entity
annually to perform any needed maintenance or adjustments to reporting
systems, at a cost of $361.15 per entity and $615,761 across entities.
However, the Commission re-evaluated the analysis for the final rule
and realized that since the costs relate to reporting certain swap data
elements, they are covered in the start-up and initial costs for Sec.
45.3 described above. To avoid double-counting, the Commission removed
the estimates for Sec. 45.4.
3. Amendments to Regulation 45.5
Amended Sec. 45.5 creates costs for entities that were previously
required to generate Unique Swap Identifiers (``USIs'') to update their
systems to generate Uniform Transaction Identifiers (``UTIs''). The PRA
section of the Proposal estimated that SDRs and reporting
counterparties required to generate UTIs would incur a one-time initial
burden of 1 hour per entity to modify their systems to adopt the
changes to Sec. 45.5, for a total estimated hours burden of 940 hours.
The Commission additionally estimated 1 hour per entity annually to
perform any needed maintenance or adjustments to reporting systems. The
related Supporting Statement filed with OMB for the Proposal estimated
that the cost per entity for the one-time initial burden would be
$72.23 for a total cost across entities of $67,896, and an additional
cost of $72 per entity and $67,680 across entities annually to perform
any needed maintenance or adjustments to reporting systems. The PRA
section of the final rule did not make any changes to the Commission's
burden hour estimates for SDRs and reporting counterparties to modify
their systems to adopt the changes to final Sec. 45.5 in connection
with either its estimates of either the one-time initial burden
estimate or the burden of ongoing maintenance or adjustments to
reporting systems. The final rule also did not change the estimated
cost per entity of $72.23 per entity or a total cost across entities of
$67,896 in connection with the Commission's estimate of the one-time
initial burden costs for SDRs and reporting counterparties required to
generate UTIs. However, the PRA section of the final rule corrected the
estimated cost per entity for ongoing maintenance or adjustment to
reporting systems in the supporting statement for the Proposal from a
cost of $72 per entity and $67,680 across entities to a cost of $72.23
per entity and $67,896 across entities for final Sec. 45.5.
Burden Statement: Provisions of CFTC Regulations 45.2, 45.3, 45.4,
45.5, 45.6, 45.10 and 45.14 result in information collection
requirements within the meaning of the PRA. With respect to the ongoing
reporting and recordkeeping burdens associated with swaps, the CFTC is
revising its estimate of the burden of this collection. The Commission
believes that SEFs, DCMs, DCOs, SDRs, swap dealers (``SDs''), major
swap participants (``MSPs''), and non-SD/MSP/DCO counterparties incur
an annual time-burden of 1,226,021 hours. This time-burden represents a
proportion of the burden respondents incur to operate and maintain
their swap data recordkeeping and reporting systems. The respondent
burden for this collection is estimated to be as follows:
Respondents/Affected Entities: SDs, MSPs, SDRs, DCMs, SEFs, and
other counterparties to a swap transaction (i.e., non-SD/MSP/DCO
counterparties).
Estimated Number of Respondents: 1,732.
Estimated Average Burden Hours per Respondent: 708.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 1,226,021 hours.
Frequency of Collection: Ongoing.
Capital or Operating and Maintenance Costs: $51,961,428.
(Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.)
Dated: March, 2, 2021.
Robert Sidman,
Deputy Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2021-04666 Filed 3-5-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6351-01-P