Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 202 / Wednesday, October 20, 2004 / Notices 61675

1Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The 

comment must be accompanied by an explicit 

request for confidential treatment, including the 

factual and legal basis for the request, and must 

identify the specific portions of the comment to be 

withheld from the public record. The request will 

be granted or denied by the Commission’s General 

Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the 

public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 

4.9(c).

Bank Holding Company Act (12 U.S.C. 

1843) (BHC Act) and Regulation Y (12 

CFR Part 225) to engage de novo, or to 

acquire or control voting securities or 

assets of a company, including the 

companies listed below, that engages 

either directly or through a subsidiary or 

other company, in a nonbanking activity 

that is listed in § 225.28 of Regulation Y 

(12 CFR 225.28) or that the Board has 

determined by Order to be closely 

related to banking and permissible for 

bank holding companies. Unless 

otherwise noted, these activities will be 

conducted throughout the United States.

Each notice is available for inspection 

at the Federal Reserve Bank indicated. 

The notice also will be available for 

inspection at the offices of the Board of 

Governors. Interested persons may 

express their views in writing on the 

question whether the proposal complies 

with the standards of section 4 of the 

BHC Act. Additional information on all 

bank holding companies may be 

obtained from the National Information 

Center website at www.ffiec.gov/nic/.

Unless otherwise noted, comments 

regarding the applications must be 

received at the Reserve Bank indicated 

or the offices of the Board of Governors 

not later than November 3, 2004.

A. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

(Richard Walker, Community Affairs 

Officer) 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, 

Massachusetts 02106–2204:

1. Boston Private Financial Holdings, 

Inc., Boston, Massachusetts; to acquire 

KLS Professional Advisors, LLC, New 

York, New York, and thereby engage in 

financial and investment advisory 

activities, pursuant to sections 

225.28(b)(6) and (b)(6)(vi) of Regulation 

Y.

B. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

(Cindy C. West, Banking Supervisor) 

1455 East Sixth Street, Cleveland, Ohio 

44101–2566:

1. Wesbanco, Inc., Wheeling, West 

Virginia; to acquire Winton Financial 

Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio, and 

thereby indirectly acquire The Winton 

Savings and Loan Company, Cincinnati, 

Ohio, and thereby engage in owning and 

operating a savings and loan 

association, pursuant to section 

225.28(b)(4)(ii) of Regulation Y.

Comments regarding this application 

must be received at the Reserve Bank or 

the office of the Board of Governors not 

later than November 15, 2004.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System, October 14, 2004.

Robert deV. Frierson,

Deputy Secretary of the Board.

[FR Doc. 04–23421 Filed 10–19–04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6210–01–S

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

Sunshine Act Meeting

AGENCY HOLDING THE MEETING: Board of 

Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System.

TIME AND DATE: 11:30 a.m., Monday, 

October 25, 2004.

PLACE: Marriner S. Eccles Federal 

Reserve Board Building, 20th and C 

Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20551.

STATUS: Closed.

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED:

1. Personnel actions (appointments, 

promotions, assignments, 

reassignments, and salary actions) 

involving individual Federal Reserve 

System employees.

2. Any items carried forward from a 

previously announced meeting.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michelle A. Smith, Director, Office of 

Board Members; 202–452–2955.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: You may 

call 202–452–3206 beginning at 

approximately 5 p.m. two business days 

before the meeting for a recorded 

announcement of bank and bank 

holding company applications 

scheduled for the meeting; or you may 

contact the Board’s Web site at http://

www.federalreserve.gov for an electronic 

announcement that not only lists 

applications, but also indicates 

procedural and other information about 

the meeting.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System, October 15, 2004.

Robert deV. Frierson,

Deputy Secretary of the Board.

[FR Doc. 04–23544 Filed 10–15–04; 4:43 pm]

BILLING CODE 6210–01–S

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Notice of a Pilot Study to Aid Federal 

Trade Commission Staff in Conducting 

a Study of the Accuracy and 

Completeness of Consumer Reports, 

Pursuant to Section 319 of the Fair and 

Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 

2003

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice of pilot study and 

request for comment. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 319 of the 

Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions 

Act of 2003 (‘‘the Act’’ or ‘‘FACT Act’’), 

the Federal Trade Commission (the 

‘‘Commission’’ or ‘‘FTC’’) is evaluating 

ways to study the accuracy and 

completeness of consumer reports. The 

purpose of the current pilot study is to 

evaluate the feasibility of a methodology 

that involves direct review by 

consumers of the information reported 

in their consumer reports. Due to the 

small size of the study group, statistical 

conclusions will not be drawn from this 

pilot study. Comments will be 

considered before the FTC submits a 

request for Office of Management and 

Budget (‘‘OMB’’) review under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act.

DATES: Public comments must be 

received on or before December 20, 

2004.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are 

invited to submit written comments. 

Comments should refer to the 

‘‘Accuracy Pilot Study: Paperwork 

Comment’’ to facilitate the organization 

of the comments. A comment filed in 

paper form should include this 

reference both in the text and on the 

envelope, and should be mailed or 

delivered to the following address: 

Federal Trade Commission/Office of the 

Secretary, Room H–159 (Annex Y), 600 

Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., 

Washington, DC 20580. Comments 

containing confidential material must be 

filed in paper (rather than electronic) 

form, and the first page of the document 

must be clearly labeled ‘‘Confidential.’’ 1

The FTC is requesting that any comment 

filed in paper form be sent by courier or 

overnight service, if possible, because 

U.S. postal mail in the Washington area 

and at the Commission is subject to 

delay due to heightened security 

precautions. Comments filed in 

electronic form (except comments 

containing any confidential material) 

should be sent to the following e-mail 

box: AccuracyPilotStudy@ftc.gov.

The FTC Act and other laws the 

Commission administers permit the 

collection of public comments to 

consider and use in this proceeding as 

appropriate. All timely and responsive 

public comments, whether filed in 

paper or electronic form, will be 

considered by the Commission, and will 

be available to the public on the FTC 

Web site, to the extent practicable, at 

http://www.ftc.gov. As a matter of 

discretion, the FTC makes every effort to 

remove home contact information for 

individuals from public comments it 

receives before placing those comments 

on the FTC Web site. More information, 

including routine uses permitted by the 

61676 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 202 / Wednesday, October 20, 2004 / Notices 

2A credit score is a numerical summary of the 

information in a credit report and is designed to be 

predictive of the risk of default. Credit scores are 

created by proprietary formulas that render the 

following general result: the higher the credit score, 

the lower the risk of default. The designated 

contractor for the pilot study plans to use the 

‘‘FICO’’ credit score, which is a commonly used 

score in credit reporting that is developed by the 

Fair Isaac Corporation.

3Participants will use the Web site http://

www.myfico.com to request credit reports. For 

participants who do not have Internet access, the 

contractor will provide it.

Privacy Act, may be found in the FTC’s 

privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/

ftc/privacy.htm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Peter Vander Nat, Economist, (202) 326–

3518, Federal Trade Commission, 

Bureau of Economics, 601 New Jersey 

Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Fair 

and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 

2003, Pub. L. 108–159 (2003), among 

other purposes, amends the Fair Credit 

Reporting Act (‘‘FCRA’’) to enhance the 

accuracy of consumer reports. The 

FACT Act requires the FTC to conduct 

a number of studies on consumer 

reporting and related issues. 

Section 319 of the FACT Act requires 

the FTC to study the accuracy and 

completeness of information in 

consumers’ credit reports and to 

consider methods for improving the 

accuracy and completeness of such 

information. The Act requires the 

Commission to issue a series of biennial 

reports to Congress over a period of 

eleven years. The first report is due in 

December 2004. 

As the first step in conducting the 

accuracy and completeness study, the 

FTC is conducting a pilot study which 

will evaluate the feasibility of a 

methodology that directly involves 

consumer review of the information 

contained in their credit reports. The 

pilot study does not rely on the 

selection of a nationally representative 

sample of consumers, and statistical 

conclusions will not be drawn from the 

pilot study. The FTC has designated a 

contractor with high-level expertise in 

credit reporting and related issues, 

subject to OMB clearance for the study 

under the Paperwork Reduction Act. 

The pilot study will involve a small 

group of consumers who give the 

contractor permission to review their 

credit reports. The contractor will help 

the consumers to understand their 

reports and to discern inaccuracies or 

incompleteness in them.

The FTC invites comments on: (1) 

Whether the proposed collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of the functions of the 

agency, which includes the duties 

provided by the FACT Act, and whether 

the information will have practical 

utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency’s 

estimate of the burden of the proposed 

collection of information, including the 

validity of the methodology and 

assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance 

the quality, utility, and clarity of the 

information to be collected; and (4) 

ways to minimize the burden of the 

collection of information on those who 

are to respond, including through the 

use of appropriate automated, 

electronic, mechanical, or other 

technological collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology, 

e.g., permitting electronic submission of 

responses. The FTC will submit the 

proposed information collection 

requirements to OMB for review, as 

required by the Paperwork Reduction 

Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501–3520. 

Description of the Collection of 

Information and Proposed Use: 

The design elements of the study are 

the following: 

1. The study will consist of 

approximately 35 consumers having a 

diversity of credit scores covering at 

least three broad categories: poor, fair, 

and good.2 The study group will consist 

of adult members of households to 

whom credit has been extended in the 

form of credit cards, automobile loans, 

home mortgages, or other forms of 

installment credit. The study group will 

be constructed by using list-assisted 

random digit telephone numbers with 

associated addresses. The FTC will send 

an official letter from the FTC regarding 

the nature and purpose of the pilot 

study to potential study participants. 

The study contractor then will screen 

consumers through telephone 

interviews. As various consumers give 

consent to participate (and thereby give 

the contractor permission to know their 

credit scores), if the respective 

categories of credit scores have an 

unequal distribution of consumers, then 

an array will be chosen to favor 

consumers with the relatively lower 

credit scores.

2. The contractor will help the 

participants obtain their credit reports 

from the three national repositories 

(‘‘credit bureaus’’): Equifax, Experian, 

and Trans Union.3 Each study 

participant will request his or her three 

credit reports on the same day; although 

different participants will generally 

request their reports on different days.

3. The contractor will help the 

participants review their credit reports 

by (a) resolving common 

misunderstandings that they may have 

about the information in their reports 

(this will involve educating the 

participant wherever appropriate), (b) 

helping to identify errors or potential 

errors, and (c) helping to locate any 

material differences or discrepancies 

among their three reports, and checking 

whether these differences indicate 

inaccuracies. 

4. The contractor will facilitate a 

participant’s contact with the credit 

bureaus and with the furnishers of 

information to help resolve items on the 

credit report the participant views as 

inaccurate. After the completion of the 

review, the contractor will determine 

whether the credit report information 

has changed, and whether any such 

change on the credit report led to a 

change in the participant’s credit score.

5. To the extent necessary, the 

contractor will guide participants 

through the FCRA dispute process (by 

law, this process is limited to 30 days, 

but may be extended to 45 days if the 

consumer submits relevant information 

during the 30-day period). Specifically, 

participants who have issues that could 

not be resolved informally will use the 

dispute process provided by the FCRA. 

At the conclusion of this process, the 

contractor will ascertain whether the 

credit report information has changed, 

and whether any such change led to a 

change in the credit score. 

The most important information to be 

obtained from the study is an 

assessment of the degree of difficulty 

with which each of the above tasks was 

performed by the participants, including 

the average amount of time needed for 

the respective tasks. The contractor also 

will provide an opinion on the 

feasibility of a national survey of credit 

reports using a methodology similar to 

that of the pilot study. 

Estimated Hours of Burden 

Consumer participation involves the 

initial screening and any subsequent 

time spent to understand, to review, and 

if deemed necessary, to dispute 

information in credit reports. The FTC 

staff estimates that up to 225 consumers 

may need to be screened through 

telephone interviews and that each 

screening interview may last up to 10 

minutes, resulting in approximately 38 

hours (225 contacts × (1/6) hour per 

contact). 

With respect to the hours spent by 

study participants, in some cases, the 

relative simplicity of a credit report may 

render little need for review, and the 

consumer’s participation may only be 

an hour. For reports that involve 

difficulties, it may require a number of 

hours for the participant to be educated 

about the report and to resolve any 

disputed items. For items that are 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 202 / Wednesday, October 20, 2004 / Notices 61677

4From testimony before Congress by the 

Consumer Date Industry Association (see Statement 

of Stuart K. Pratt, CDIA, Before the Committee on 

Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the United 

States Senate, July 9, 2003), there were 

approximately 16 million consumer-requested 

credit reports across the three major credit bureaus 

for year 2003. Roughly 50% of these reports did not 

lead to any further response from the consumer 

(such as a call to, or dispute with, the credit 

bureaus). Regarding the remaining reports, about 

half of these (i.e., about 4 million reports) involved 

questions or clarifications; the other half (roughly 

another 4 million reports) involved some type of 

dispute. These data, although approximate, can be 

used to help create an estimate of the average time 

spent by participants in reviewing their credit 

reports. 

The following estimates are for the purpose of 

calculating burden under the Paperwork Reduction 

Act. The estimates are conservative and likely 

overestimate the amount of time that will be spent 

by study participants. For reports that do not 

require the participants to pose any questions to a 

credit bureau about their report (estimated to be 

50% of reports), staff estimates the participants’s 

time spent to be an hour or less. For reports that 

involve questions to a credit bureau but not a 

formal dispute (estimated to be 25% of reports), 

staff estimates the participant’s time spent to be 2 

to 3 hours. For reports that involve a formal dispute 

(estimated here to be 25% of consumer-requested 

reports), there may be significant differences for 

time spent by the participants, and this variation is 

itself one element to be discerned by the pilot 

study. Staff believes that, as a preliminary estimate, 

a formal dispute would not involve more than 15 

hours of the participant’s time, particularly in light 

of the fact that the participants will have expert 

assistance available to them, including guidance 

through the FCRA dispute process. Overall, the staff 

has calculated the average time per participant by 

using the weighted average over the three categories 

of reports: (.50 × 1 hour) + (.25 × 3 hours) + (.25 

× 15 hours) = 5 hours.

disputed formally, the participant must 

submit a dispute form, identify the 

nature of the problem, present 

verification from the participant’s own 

records to the extent possible, and, upon 

furnisher response, perhaps submit 

follow-up information. All participants 

will have expert assistance available to 

them, and staff estimates that, on 

average, approximately 5 hours would 

be spent per participant, resulting in a 

total of 175 hours (5 hours × 35 

participants).4 Total burden hours are 

thus in a neighborhood of 200 hours (up 

to 38 hours for screening plus 

approximately 175 hours for study 

participants, then rounded to the 

nearest 50 hours).

Estimated Cost Burden 

Participation by the consumer is 

voluntary. All participants will benefit 

by receiving assistance from the 

contractor in reviewing their credit 

reports, and identifying and resolving 

any errors. No monetary costs are 

involved for the consumer; specifically, 

participants will not pay for their credit 

reports.

John D. Graubert, 

Acting General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 04–23453 Filed 10–19–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4750–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

National Committee on Vital and Health 

Statistics: Meeting 

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory 

Committee Act, the Department of 

Health and Human Services (HHS) 

announces the following advisory 

committee meeting.

Name: National Committee on Vital and 

Health Statistics (NCVHS). 

Time and Date: November 4, 2004, 9 a.m.–

3 p.m., November 5, 2004, 10 a.m.–3:15 p.m. 

Place: Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 

Independence Avenue, SW., Eisenberg 

Room—Room 800, Washington, DC 20201. 

Status: Open. 

Purpose: At this meeting the Committee 

will hear presentations and hold discussions 

on several health data policy topics. On the 

morning of the first day the Committee will 

hear updates and status reports from the 

Department on topics including Clinical Data 

Standards, the Consolidated Health 

Informatics Initiative, and the HIPAA Privacy 

Rule. There will also be updates on activities 

of the National Center for Health Statistic’s 

(NCHS) Board of Scientific Counselors and 

on the National Health Information 

Infrastructure (NHII). In the afternoon the 

Committee will hear a presentation on the 

Census Bureau’s American Community 

Survey and will discuss various materials 

prepared by NCVHS Subcommittees. 

On the second day the Committee will be 

briefed on the National Institutes of Health’s 

(NIH) Roadmap for the Future plan and the 

Clinical Trial Research Agenda. The 

Committee will also discuss plans for its 

annual report to Congress and there will be 

reports from the Subcommittees and a 

discussion of agendas for future Committee 

meetings. 

The times shown above are for the full 

Committee meeting. Subcommittee breakout 

sessions are scheduled for late in the 

afternoon of the first day and in the morning 

prior to the full Committee meeting on the 

second day. Agendas for these breakout 

sessions will be posted on the NCVHS Web 

site (URL below) when available. 

For Further Information Contact:

Substantive program information as well as 

summaries of meetings and a roster of 

committee members may be obtained from 

Marjorie S. Greenberg, Executive Secretary, 

NCVHS, National Center for Health Statistics, 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 

3311 Toledo Road, Room 2402, Hyattsville, 

Maryland 20782, telephone (301) 458–4245. 

Information also is available on the NCVHS 

home page of the HHS Web site: http://

www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/, where further 

information including an agenda will be 

posted when available. 

Should you require reasonable 

accommodation, please contact the CDC 

Office of Equal Employment Opportunity on 

(301) 458–4EEO (4336) as soon as possible.

Dated: October 12, 2004. 

James Scanlon, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science 

and Data Policy, Office of the Assistant 

Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

[FR Doc. 04–23412 Filed 10–19–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4151–05–M

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

National Committee on Vital and Health 

Statistics: Meeting 

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory 

Committee Act, the Department of 

Health and Human Services (HHS) 

announces the following advisory 

committee meeting.

Name: National Committee on Vital and 

Health Statistics (NCVHS), Workgroup on the 

National Health Information Infrastructure 

(NHII). 

Time and Date: November 12, 2004, 9 

a.m.–5 p.m. 

Place: Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 

Independence Avenue, SW., Room 705A, 

Washington, DC 20201. 

Status: Open. 

Purpose: The Workgroup will hold the first 

in a series of hearings to gather information 

about personal health records, including key 

issues and current approaches. Subsequent 

hearings will be scheduled early in 2005. 

For Further Information Contact:

Substantive program information as well as 

summaries of meetings and a roster of 

committee members may be obtained from 

Mary Jo Deering Ph.D., Lead Staff Person for 

the NCVHS Workgroup on the National 

Health Information Infrastructure, NCI Center 

for Strategic Dissemination and NCI Center 

for Bioinformatics, National Cancer Institute, 

National Institutes of Health, 6116 Executive 

Boulevard—Room 4087, Rockville, MD 

20852, telephone (301) 594–8193, or Marjorie 

S. Greenberg, Executive Secretary, NCVHS, 

National Center for Health Statistics, Centers 

for Disease Control and Prevention, 3311 

Toledo Road, Room 2402, Hyattsville, 

Maryland 20782, telephone (301) 458–4245. 

Information also is available on the NCVHS 

home page of the HHS Web site: http://

www.ncvhs.gov/, where an agenda for the 

meeting will be posted when available. 

Should you require reasonable 

accommodation, please contact the CDC 

Office of Equal Employment Opportunity on 

(301) 458–4EEO (4336) as soon as possible.

Dated: October 12, 2004. 

James Scanlon, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science 

and Data Policy, Office of the Assistant 

Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

[FR Doc. 04–23413 Filed 10–19–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4151–04–M