Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 211 / Tuesday, November 2, 2004 / Notices 63533

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Brett C. Gerry, Associate General 

Counsel, Commission on the 

Intelligence Capabilities of the United 

States Regarding Weapons of Mass 

Destruction, by facsimile, or by 

telephone at (703) 414–1200.

Victor E. Bernson, Jr., 

Executive Office of the President, Office of 

Administration, General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 04–24468 Filed 11–1–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3130–WS–P

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS 

COMMISSION 

[CC Docket No. 97–90; CCB/CPD File No. 

97–12; DA 04–2055] 

Requests of US West 

Communications, Inc. for 

Interconnection Cost Adjustment 

Mechanisms; Petition for Declaratory 

Ruling and Contingent Petition for 

Preemption

AGENCY: Federal Communications 

Commission.

ACTION: Notice; termination of 

proceeding. 

SUMMARY: This document is a 

notification of final termination of the 

Requests of US West Communications, 

Inc. (US West) for Interconnection Cost 

Adjustment Mechanisms (ICAM); 

Petition for Declaratory Ruling and 

Contingent Petition for Preemption. US 

West (now Qwest) never pursued 

recovery of interconnection costs 

through ICAM surcharges, and the 

petition was dismissed without 

prejudice unless any interested party 

provided notice that a genuine dispute 

remained to be resolved. No such 

notices were received, and parties are 

notified that this proceeding has been 

terminated.

DATES: This proceeding has been 

terminated as of September 29, 2004.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Julie 

Saulnier, Wireline Competition Bureau, 

Pricing Policy Division, (202) 418–1530.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a 

summary of the Public Notice in CC 

Docket No. 97–90, CCB/CPD File No. 

97–12, released October 20, 2004. The 

complete text of the Public Notice is 

available for public inspection Monday 

through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 

p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 11:30 

a.m. in the Commission’s Consumer and 

Governmental Affairs Bureau, Reference 

Information Center, Room CY–A257, 

445 Twelfth Street, SW., Washington, 

DC 20554. The complete text is 

available also on the Commission’

Internet site at http://www.fcc.gov. On 

July 9, 2004, the Wireline Competition 

Bureau’s Pricing Policy Division issued 

an order stating the US West’s Petition 

for Declaratory Ruling and Contingent 

Petition for Preemption would be 

dismissed without prejudice effective 30 

days after publication of the order in the 

Federal Register, unless the Bureau 

received notice from any interested 

party that there was still a genuine 

dispute that remained to be resolved. A 

summary of the order was published in 

the Federal Register on August 30, 

2004. See 69 FR 52904, August 30, 2004. 

The Bureau received no notices within 

30 days of that date. Therefore, the 

proceeding was terminated as of 

September 29, 2004.

Federal Communications Commission. 

Jeffrey J. Carlisle, 

Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau.

[FR Doc. 04–24435 Filed 11–1–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6712–01–P

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

Sunshine Act Notices

* * * * *

DATE AND TIME: Thursday, October 28, 

2004 at 10 a.m.

PLACE: 999 E Street, NW., Washington, 

DC (Ninth Floor).

STATUS: This meeting will be open to the 

public. 

The following item was added to the 

agenda: Final rules on Coordinated and 

Independent Expenditures by Party 

Committees (11 CFR 109.35).

DATE AND TIME: Thursday, November 4, 

2004 at 10 a.m.

PLACE: 999 E Street, NW., Washington, 

DC (Ninth Floor).

STATUS: This meeting will be open to the 

public.

ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED: Correction and 

Approval of Minutes. Draft Advisory 

Opinion 2004–39: Washington State 

Republican Party by Chris Vance, 

Chairman. Routine Administrative 

Matters.

* * * * *

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, November 9, 

2004 at 10 a.m.

PLACE: 999 E Street, NW., Washington, 

DC (Ninth Floor).

STATUS: This meeting will be closed to 

the public.

ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED: Compliance 

matters pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 437g. 

Audits conducted pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 

437g, 438(b), and title 26, U.S.C. Matters 

concerning participation in civil actions 

or proceedings or arbitration. Internal 

personnel rules and procedures or 

matters affecting a particular employee.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Robert Biersack, Acting Press Officer, 

telephone: (202) 694–1220.

Mary W. Dove, 

Secretary of the Commission.

[FR Doc. 04–24469 Filed 10–28–04; 4:14 pm] 

BILLING CODE 6715–01–M

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

Agency information collection 

activities: Announcement of Board 

approval under delegated authority 

and submission to OMB

SUMMARY: Background

Notice is hereby given of the final 

approval of proposed information 

collection by the Board of Governors of 

the Federal Reserve System (Board) 

under OMB delegated authority, as per 

5 CFR 1320.16 (OMB Regulations on 

Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the 

Public). Board–approved collections of 

information are incorporated into the 

official OMB inventory of currently 

approved collections of information. 

Copies of the OMB 83–Is and supporting 

statements and approved collection of 

information instrument(s) are placed 

into OMB’s public docket files. The 

Federal Reserve may not conduct or 

sponsor, and the respondent is not 

required to respond to, an information 

collection that has been extended, 

revised, or implemented on or after 

October 1, 1995, unless it displays a 

currently valid OMB control number.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Federal Reserve Board Clearance Officer 

–Cindy Ayouch—Division of Research 

and Statistics, Board of Governors of the 

Federal Reserve System, Washington, 

DC 20551 (202–452–3829)

OMB Desk Officer–Mark Menchik—

Office of Information and Regulatory 

Affairs, Office of Management and 

Budget, New Executive Office Building, 

Room 10235, Washington, DC 20503, or 

email to mmenchik@omb.eop.gov

Final approval under OMB delegated 

authority of the implementation of the 

following report:

Report title: Quantitative Impact 

Study and Loss Data Collection 

Exercise.

Agency form number: FR 3045.

OMB Control number: 7100–0303.

Frequency: One time.

Reporters: Bank holding companies.

Annual reporting hours: QIS–4: 7,000 

hours; LDCE: 1,000 hours

Estimated average hours per response:

QIS–4: 280 hours; LDCE: 40 hours

63534 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 211 / Tuesday, November 2, 2004 / Notices 

Number of respondents: 25 bank 

holding companies.

General description of report: This 

information collection is voluntary (12 

U.S.C. 1844) and is given confidential 

treatment (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)).

Abstract: The Basel Committee on 

Banking Supervision (BCBS) has 

proposed new regulatory capital 

standards for internationally active 

banking institutions, (the ‘‘International 

Convergence of Capital Measurement 

and Capital Standards: A Revised 

Framework’’) (the Framework), to 

replace the current Capital Accord (the 

‘‘International Convergence of Capital 

Measurement and Capital Standards’’) 

(1988 Capital Accord) that has been in 

place since 1988. The new Framework 

is more complex than the original 1988 

Capital Accord and is more risk–

sensitive. It addresses the advances and 

innovations in financial instruments 

and risk measurement practices that 

have occurred during the past decade.

As members of the BCBS, the federal 

banking agencies (the Federal Reserve, 

Comptroller of the Currency, Federal 

Deposit Insurance Corporation, and 

Office of Thrift Supervision) (the 

Agencies) share the common goal of 

promoting a capital standard that 

provides adequate safety and soundness 

to world financial markets in a way that 

is more sensitive to different levels of 

economic risk than the 1988 Capital 

Accord. To do this, the Agencies believe 

they must rely heavily on an 

institution’s internal risk measurement 

systems and its own quantitative 

assessment of risk, particularly for the 

largest, most complex, and highly 

sophisticated financial institutions. For 

other institutions, less complex capital 

standards could suffice.

The Framework contains several 

alternative measures for calculating 

minimum regulatory capital 

requirements, but the Agencies are 

planning to adopt only the most 

advanced approaches for credit and 

operational risk for U.S. financial 

institutions. They further intend to 

make the new Framework mandatory for 

only a small number of large, complex 

financial institutions in the United 

States and would allow other financial 

institutions that have adequate risk 

measurement systems and controls to 

‘‘opt–in’’ to the new standard if they 

sought to do so. Those that did not opt–

in would continue to operate under the 

current capital standard or future 

variations of that standard. The 

Agencies will conduct two distinct 

surveys that are part of this information 

collection to improve their 

understanding of the likely effects of the 

new Framework and to help in 

implementing new regulatory capital 

standards in the United States. This 

information collection consists of: (1) a 

quantitative impact study (QIS) and (2) 

an operational risk loss data collection 

exercise (LDCE).

Quantitative Impact Study

The QIS will be the fourth such study 

and will build on earlier versions that 

gathered information about each 

participant’s risk profile and risk 

measurement process in order to 

evaluate the likely effects of a new 

regulatory capital standard on U.S. 

banking organizations. On a best–efforts 

basis, participating financial institutions 

are being asked to provide information 

about the amount of credit exposures 

(e.g., loans and loan commitments) for 

each major loan portfolio (corporate, 

interbank, sovereign, and retail) and the 

risk characteristics of each portfolio, as 

indicated by internal measures of a 

loan’s probability of default (PD), loss 

given default (LGD), remaining 

maturity, and likelihood that currently 

undrawn lines of credit will be drawn. 

Exposures in each portfolio could be 

slotted into as many as twenty PD 

‘‘bands’’ and a variety of maturity and 

LGD categories. Retail portfolios are to 

be further divided among first 

residential mortgages, home equity 

loans and lines of credit, credit card, 

and other retail exposures. To the extent 

possible, corporate exposures should 

differentiate between those arising from 

credit extended to small and medium 

sized firms versus credit extended to 

larger businesses, because the proposal 

assumes that smaller companies are 

generally less exposed to business 

cycles. These and other distinctions 

among exposures will parallel 

differences embodied in the new 

Framework and attempt, to the extent 

practicable, to reflect distinctions 

important to banks in pricing and 

measuring risk.

Participants are also being asked to 

provide estimated capital requirements 

under the Framework for market risk 

and operational risk.

Finally, participants are also being 

asked to complete a questionnaire to 

provide information about the internal 

procedures that were used in deriving 

the various indicators of portfolio risk 

(i.e., PDs, LGDs, etc.). They are also 

being asked to describe the robustness 

of internal or external data used, critical 

assumptions made, and substantive 

deviations from proposed U.S. 

supervisory standards for deriving such 

parameters.

Loss Data Collection Exercise

Participants are also being asked to 

provide information about their internal 

loss data relating to operational risk in 

a loss data collection exercise. Internal 

loss data should include the amount of 

each individual operational loss 

exceeding a threshold, the internal 

business line, the event type, and the 

amount of any recoveries.

Current Actions: The Agencies 

published a joint notice on August 16, 

2004 (69 FR 50443) and received no 

public comments. The information 

collection is unchanged from the one 

proposed in the first notice. However, 

the Board has agreed to take burden at 

the bank holding company level for this 

information collection for respondents 

that would have filed with the OCC. 

OTS and FDIC are contemporaneously 

conducting identical information 

collections from their regulated 

institutions. Because these two agencies 

address their information collection to 

less than ten respondents, they are not 

required to seek OMB approval of the 

collection. However, the data from these 

information collections will be 

combined with the information 

collection described in today’s notice, 

and all of the information collected will 

be analyzed jointly by the four banking 

agencies.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System, October 27, 2004.

Robert deV. Frierson,

Deputy Secretary of the Board.

[FR Doc. 04–24408 Filed 11–1–04; 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: 12:00 p.m., Friday, 

November 5, 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