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 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 211 / Tuesday, November 2, 2004 / Notices 63535

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).

2The Used Car Market Report 2004 (‘‘Manheim 

Market Report’’), p. 45, published by Manheim, 

6205 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, Georgia 

30328, citing NADA and CNW Marketing/Research. 

The Manheim Market Report estimates the number 

of dealerships in 2003 as 75,725. Staff has rounded 

that number to 76,000, which is slightly lower than 

the estimate of 80,000 dealers used in the prior 

Paperwork Reduction Act notice. The Manheim 

Market Report is available online at: http://

www.manheimnews.com/UCMR/reports/

UCMR2004dy7r9901resources/index.html.

3Manheim Market Report, p. 45. The Manheim 

Market Report estimates the number of used cars 

sold by dealers in 2003 as 29,903,000. Staff has 

rounded that number to 30,000,000, the same 

estimate used in the prior Paperwork Reduction Act 

notice.

4A relatively small number of dealers opt to 

contract with outside companies to perform the 

various tasks associated with complying with the 

Rule. Staff assumes that outside contractors would 

require about the same amount of time and incur 

similar cost as dealers to perform these tasks. 

Accordingly, the hour and cost burden totals 

shown, while referring to ‘‘dealers,’’ incorporate the 

time and cost borne by outside companies in 

performing the tasks associated with the Rule.

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 29, 2004.

Robert deV. Frierson,

Deputy Secretary of the Board.

[FR Doc. 04–24582 Filed 10–29–04; 2:45 pm]

BILLING CODE 6210–01–S

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission 

(‘‘FTC’’).

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The information collection 

requirements described below will be 

submitted to the Office of Management 

and Budget (‘‘OMB’’) for review, as 

required by the Paperwork Reduction 

Act (‘‘PRA’’). The FTC is seeking public 

comments on its proposal to extend 

through September 30, 2007, the current 

PRA clearance for information 

collection requirements contained in its 

Used Motor Vehicle Trade Regulation 

Rule (‘‘Used Car Rule’’ or ‘‘Rule’’). That 

clearance was scheduled to expire on 

September 30, 2004. On September 14, 

2004, the OMB granted the FTC’s 

request for a short-term extension to 

November 30, 2004, to allow for this 

second opportunity to comment.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before December 2, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are 

invited to submit written comments. 

Comments should refer to ‘‘Used Car 

Rule: Paperwork comment, P048817,’’ to 

facilitate the organization of 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 T), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 

NW., Washington, DC 20580. If the 

comment contains any material for 

which confidential treatment is 

requested, it 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 

address: PaperworkComment@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 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 the 

public comments it receives before 

placing those comments on the FTC 

Web site. More information, including 

routine uses permitted by the Privacy 

Act, may be found in the FTC’s privacy 

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

privacy.htm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or 

copies of the proposed information 

requirements should be addressed to 

John C. Hallerud, Attorney, Midwest 

Region, Federal Trade Commission, 55 

East Monroe, Suite 1860, Chicago, 

Illinois 60603, (312) 960–5634.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On July 

28, 2004, the FTC sought comment on 

the information collections associated 

with the Used Car Rule, 16 CFR part 455 

(OMB Control Number 3084–0108). See

69 FR 45059. One comment was 

received from the National Automobile 

Dealers Association (‘‘NADA’’) and is 

discussed below. Pursuant to OMB 

regulations that implement the PRA (5 

CFR part 1320), the FTC is providing 

this second opportunity for public 

comment while seeking OMB approval 

to extend the existing paperwork 

clearance for the rule. 

The Used Car Rule facilitates 

informed purchasing decisions by 

consumers by requiring used car dealers 

to disclose information about warranty 

coverage, if any, and the mechanical 

condition of used cars they offer for 

sale. The Rule requires that used car 

dealers display a Buyers Guide that, 

among other things, discloses 

information about warranty coverage on 

each used car offered for sale. 

Burden Statement 

Estimated total annual hours burden:

2,012,250 hours. 

The Rule has no recordkeeping 

requirements. The estimated burden 

relating solely to disclosure 

requirements is 2,012,250 hours. As 

explained in more detail below, this 

estimate is based on the number of used 

car dealers (approximately 76,000 2 ), the 

number of used cars sold by dealers 

annually (approximately 30,000,000 3 ), 

and the time needed to fulfill the 

information collection tasks required by 

the Rule.4 Staff revises its prior annual 

burden estimate of 1,925,000 hours to 

reflect a decrease in the approximate 

number of dealers and to reflect 

additional time that dealerships may 

need to comply with the Rule’s 

requirement that dealers complete and 

post Spanish language Buyers Guides 

when sales are conducted in Spanish.

The Rule requires that used car 

dealers display a one-page, double-sided 

Buyers Guide in the window of each 

used car they offer for sale. The 

component tasks associated with the 

Rule’s required display of Buyers 

Guides include: (1) Ordering and 

stocking Buyers Guide forms; (2) 

entering applicable data on Buyers 

Guides; (3) posting the Buyers Guides 

on vehicles; (4) making any necessary 

revisions in Buyers Guides; and (5) 

complying with the Rule’s requirements 

for sales conducted in Spanish.