81548 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 242 / Wednesday, December 16, 2020 / Notices 

86 Id. (stating that in the FINRA Study, the rate 

of new disclosure events by associated persons 

during the pendency of their appeals is less than 

30%). 

87 Id. (arguing that the FINRA Study continued its 

analysis through the year-end after the year in 

which the appeal reached a decision thus skewing 

its results). 

88See FINRA October 7 Letter; see also Notice at 

20745–46, 20755 and note 5. 

89See FINRA October 7 Letter; see also Notice at 

20748. 

90See FINRA October 7 Letter; see also Notice at 

20750, 20754. 

91See FINRA Study at 17. Additional academic 

research suggests that a higher rate of new 

disciplinary and other disclosure events is highly 

correlated with past disciplinary and other 

disclosure events, as far back as nine years prior. 

See Notice at note 5. 

92See FINRA Study at 9–10. 

93 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(2). 

1 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1). 

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4. 

3Self-Regulatory Organizations; ICE Clear Europe 

Limited; Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change 

Relating to the ICE Clear Europe Investment 

Management Procedures, Exchange Act Release No. 

90290 (October 30, 2020), 85 FR 70697 (November 

5, 2020) (SR–ICEEU–2020–013) (‘‘Notice’’). 

4See Notice supra note 3. 

5Capitalized terms used but not defined herein 

have the meanings specified in the Procedures or 

the ICE Clear Europe Clearing Rules (the ‘‘Rules’’), 

as applicable. 

complaints.86 The commenter 

suggested, among other things, that 

FINRA’s reports used data (i.e., violative 

events) to measure the likelihood of 

recidivist behavior that would not be 

the subject of a disciplinary action 

under the proposed rule change. 

Accordingly, the commenter did not 

believe FINRA’s statistical evidence 

justified the proposed rule change, 

including the additional costs and loss 

of rights that would result from 

approving the proposed rule change.87

In response, FINRA reiterated its 

concern about the potential risks posed 

by broker-dealers that persistently 

employ associated persons who engage 

in misconduct, as well as its findings 

that past disciplinary and other 

regulatory events, such as repeated 

disciplinary actions, arbitrations and 

complaints associated with a member 

broker-dealer or individual can be 

predictive of similar future events.88

Moreover, FINRA believes the estimated 

number of disclosure events associated 

with persons who appeal disciplinary 

decisions reflects a specific potential 

risk to investors.89 FINRA asserted that 

the proposed rule change would adopt 

processes directly tailored to target this 

specific misconduct and minimize 

further investor harm.90

The Commission believes that the 

commenter’s challenge to FINRA’s 

statistical justification for the proposed 

rule change obfuscates the point of the 

FINRA Study. In its study, FINRA uses 

a model that predicts investor harm 

based on information publicly released 

in BrokerCheck and non-public Central 

Registration Depository data and found 

that 20% of the 181,133 brokers in their 

sample with the highest ex ante 

predicted probability of investor harm 

are associated with more than 55% of 

the investor harm events and more than 

55% of total dollar harm. Accordingly, 

FINRA concluded that the risk of future 

harm is predictable.91 The Commission 

believes that the methodology used in 

the FINRA Study had a sound statistical 

basis. The Commission understands the 

commenter’s point that the FINRA 

Study measured the likelihood of 

recidivist behavior using data (i.e., 

violative acts) that would not be 

captured under the proposed rule 

change; however, the Commission 

believes FINRA shows its result is not 

sensitive to a particular threshold value. 

In addition, while the Commission 

understands the commenter’s point that 

FINRA continues the analysis through 

the year-end after the year in which the 

appeal reached a decision, the FINRA 

Study states that the complaint system 

tracks the date the complaint was filed 

but not the date of the actual occurrence 

of investor harm. The study makes a 

conservative assumption that the harm 

occurred the year before the filing so 

that when running a regression to 

predict an occurrence of harm, FINRA 

would not be predicting an event with 

data that was only available 

concurrently with or subsequent to the 

event.92 Accordingly, the Commission 

believes that the methodology FINRA 

used to conduct its study had a sound 

statistical basis and that FINRA had a 

sound basis upon which to base the 

proposed rule change. 

In sum, for the above reasons, the 

Commission believes that the proposed 

rule change would strengthen the tools 

available to FINRA in responding to 

associated persons who have a 

significant history of misconduct. In 

addition, the Commission believes that 

the proposed rule change has 

sufficiently tailored the proposed 

processes to target the specific 

misconduct it seeks to address, which 

would minimize the potential costs to 

broker-dealers. Moreover, the proposed 

rules would establish processes by 

which an associated person or brokerdealer would have adequate 

opportunities to challenge the imposed 

conditions and restrictions and seek 

further review. 

Accordingly, the Commission finds 

the proposed rule change would result 

in greater investor protections by 

helping address the concerns raised by 

associated persons with a significant 

history of misconduct and the brokerdealers that employ them while 

narrowly tailoring the review process to 

mitigate the potential burdens on those 

individuals and broker-dealers. 

IV. Conclusion 

It Is Therefore Ordered pursuant to 

Section 19(b)(2) of the Exchange Act 93

that the proposed rule change (SR– 

FINRA–2020–011), as modified by 

Amendment No. 1, be, and hereby is, 

approved. 

Jill M. Peterson, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2020–27626 Filed 12–15–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[Release No. 34–90627; File No. SR–ICEEU– 

2020–013] 

Self-Regulatory Organizations; ICE 

Clear Europe Limited; Order Approving 

Proposed Rule Change Relating to the 

ICE Clear Europe Investment 

Management Procedures 

December 10, 2020. 

I. Introduction 

On October 23, 2020, ICE Clear 

Europe Limited (‘‘ICE Clear Europe’’) 

filed with the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (‘‘Commission’’), pursuant 

to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities 

Exchange Act of 1934 (the ‘‘Act’’),1 and 

Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2 a proposed rule 

change to amend its Investment 

Management Procedures (the 

‘‘Procedures’’) to make certain 

clarifications and updates with respect 

to permissible investments.3 The 

proposed rule change was published for 

comment in the Federal Register on 

November 5, 2020.4 The Commission 

did not receive comments regarding the 

proposed rule change. For the reasons 

discussed below, the Commission is 

approving the proposed rule change. 

II. Description of the Proposed Rule 

Change 

The proposed rule change would 

amend the Procedures to clarify the 

requirements for investment of customer 

funds by FCM/BD Clearing Members 5

resulting from the expansion of 

permitted investments to include 

qualifying Euro-denominated non-U.S. 

sovereign debt pursuant to an exemptive 

order issued by the U.S. Commodity 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 242 / Wednesday, December 16, 2020 / Notices 81549 

6Order Granting Exemption From Certain 

Provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act 

Regarding Investment of Customer Funds and From 

Certain Related Commission Regulations, 83 FR 

35241, 35245 (July 25, 2018) (permitting the 

investment of futures and swap customer funds in 

euro-denominated debt issued by the French 

Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany 

under specified conditions, and granting other 

related limited exemptions to CFTC-registered 

derivatives clearing organizations or ‘‘DCOs’’). 

7See Notice, 85 FR at 70697. 8See Notice, 85 FR at 70697. 

9Specifically, the proposed definition of 

‘‘Permitted Purchases of Euro denominated debt for 

FCM Customer Funds’’ would include the 

conditions listed in section (3)(a) through (d) in the 

CFTC Order. See supra note 6 at 35245. 

10 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(2)(C). 

Futures Trading Commission (the 

‘‘CFTC Order’’).6

In Section 1 of the Procedures, ICE 

Clear Europe proposes to amend its 

investment management objective to 

clarify that the cash subject to 

investment excludes its corporate cash 

held for operating purposes, but would 

include cash held for the purposes of 

meeting ICE Clear Europe’s 

contributions to the guaranty fund 

(referred to below as ‘‘skin in the 

game’’), maintaining its capital pursuant 

to applicable regulatory requirements 

(referred to below as ‘‘regulatory 

capital’’), or for any other purpose in 

connection with its daily treasury 

activities for the management of 

Clearing Members’ margin or guaranty 

fund contributions. ICE Clear Europe 

represented that this clarification is 

consistent with current practice.7

In Section 2 of the Procedures, ICE 

Clear Europe proposes three main 

changes to its overall investment 

considerations, which are a list of 

criteria that ICE Clear Europe considers 

when making investments. First, it 

would clarify that the goal for nonovernight investments to have a variety 

of maturity dates only applies where 

applicable and thus not necessarily in 

all cases, such as investments in bank 

deposits. Second, it would amend the 

description of how futures commission 

merchant (‘‘FCM’’) customer funds may 

be invested by permitting investments 

in cash deposits, clarifying that direct 

purchases with U.S. dollar cash are 

limited to U.S. sovereign bonds, and 

providing that direct purchases with 

Euro cash may be made in French and 

German sovereign bonds as permitted in 

the CFTC Order. Third, it would clarify 

that ICE Clear Europe calculates the 

requirement of no more than 5% of the 

investible funds should be held as 

unsecured cash over an average period 

of one calendar month. In addition, ICE 

Clear Europe would make certain other 

typographical and similar corrections to 

this section of the Procedures. 

ICE Clear Europe would also amend 

its table of authorized investments and 

concentration limits for cash from 

Clearing Members and from skin in the 

game to expand the investments in 

which ICE Clear Europe may invest 

such cash and skin in the game. This 

table identifies the permitted 

instruments for investment and then 

identifies, for each instrument: (i) The 

maximum issuer or counterparty 

concentration limits; (ii) the maximum 

portfolio concentration limits; (iii) the 

maximum maturity; and (iv) the 

minimum credit ratings of the 

instrument or allowed issuers of the 

instrument. The proposed rule change 

would retain the permitted investments 

currently listed in this table (i.e., reverse 

repurchase agreements, US, UK, and EU 

sovereign obligations, US, UK, and EU 

government agency bonds, central bank 

obligations, and commercial bank 

obligations) and make four main 

changes with respect to the currently 

permitted instruments. First, it would 

apply the existing maximum issuer/ 

counterparty concentration limit of 15% 

of the total EUR balance in a single 

government issuer only to government 

bonds issued by Belgium and the 

Netherlands, and provide no limit for 

French and German government bonds. 

Second, it would remove the current 

reference to the issuer limit and impose 

new maximum portfolio concentration 

limits for EU government bonds at 20% 

of the total EUR balance in a single issue 

for German or French government 

bonds, and 10% of the total EUR 

balance in a single issue for Belgian or 

Dutch government bonds. Third, for 

investments of FCM customer funds in 

EU government bonds, it would apply 

additional criteria as required in the 

CFTC Order, as described further below 

in the new defined term ‘‘Permitted 

Purchases of Euro denominated debt for 

FCM Customer Funds’’ in the Glossary 

section of the Procedures. Fourth, with 

respect to central bank deposits, it 

would add the Federal Reserve and the 

European Central Bank (ECB) to the list 

of allowed central banks. While ICE 

Clear Europe represented that it does 

not necessarily have access to deposits 

at such central banks at this time, the 

amendment would allow for possible 

future developments.8

The proposed rule change would also 

add a new instrument category of 

commercial bank deposits to ICE Clear 

Europe’s table of authorized 

investments and concentration limits for 

its regulatory capital. This table 

currently lists US, UK, and EU 

sovereign obligations, and US, UK, and 

EU government agency bonds as the 

only permitted investments for ICE 

Clear Europe’s regulatory capital. The 

addition of commercial bank deposits 

thus expands this list. For this 

instrument category, ICE Clear Europe 

would set unsecured cash limits 

separately for financial service 

providers; impose a maximum portfolio 

concentration limit at no more than 5% 

of the total investible funds in 

unsecured cash on average each 

calendar month; set the maximum 

maturity at overnight; and require 

minimum credit ratings of A–1/P–1. 

The Procedures currently contain an 

additional table that describes the 

collateral acceptable for reverse 

repurchase agreements (also referred to 

below as ‘‘reverse repo’’). This table 

specifies the currency of the agreement, 

the currency of the collateral, the credit 

rating, the securities used as collateral, 

and the haircut applied by ICE Clear 

Europe. The proposed rule change 

would expand the scope of acceptable 

collateral for reverse repurchase 

agreements to allow ICE Clear Europe to 

use GBP and EUR agency bonds with 

AA–/Aa3 credit ratings and a 2% 

haircut. The proposed rule change 

would also remove the current credit 

rating requirement of AA–/Aa3 for UK 

and US sovereign bonds. For FCM 

customer funds invested in EUR reverse 

repurchase agreements, the proposed 

rule change would specify that only 

collateral meeting the CFTC Order 

requirements will be accepted. 

ICE Clear Europe would also update 

the Glossary section of the Procedures to 

add central banks to the definition of 

‘‘Permitted Depositories for FCM 

Customer Funds’’ where the CFTC has 

provided the relevant exemption to ICE 

Clear Europe. In addition, the proposed 

rule change would include a definition 

of the term ‘‘Permitted Purchases of 

Euro denominated debt for FCM 

Customer Funds.’’ This new definition 

would set forth the conditions under the 

CFTC Order for investment of FCM 

customer funds in euro-denominated 

sovereign debt issued by the French 

Republic and the Federal Republic of 

Germany.9

III. Discussion and Commission 

Findings 

Section 19(b)(2)(C) of the Act directs 

the Commission to approve a proposed 

rule change of a self-regulatory 

organization if it finds that such 

proposed rule change is consistent with 

the requirements of the Act and the 

rules and regulations thereunder 

applicable to such organization.10 For 

the reasons given below, the 

Commission finds that the proposed 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
81550 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 242 / Wednesday, December 16, 2020 / Notices 

11 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

12 17 CFR 240.17Ad–22(e)(16). 

13 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

14 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

15 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

16 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

17 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

18 17 CFR 240.17Ad–22(e)(16). 

rule change is consistent with Section 

17A(b)(3)(F) of the Act 11 and Rule 

17Ad–22(e)(16).12

A. Consistency With Section 

17A(b)(3)(F) of the Act 

Section 17A(b)(3)(F) of the Act 

requires, among other things, that the 

rules of ICE Clear Europe be designed to 

promote the prompt and accurate 

clearance and settlement of securities 

transactions and, to the extent 

applicable, derivative agreements, 

contracts, and transactions, as well as to 

assure the safeguarding of securities and 

funds which are in the custody or 

control of ICE Clear Europe or for which 

it is responsible.13

The Commission believes that, by 

clarifying ICE Clear Europe’s criteria for 

investments of cash received from 

Clearing Members and certain other 

cash it holds for skin in the game and 

regulatory capital, and updating the 

requirements for investment of customer 

funds by FCM/BD Clearing Members 

resulting from the CFTC’s authorized 

expansion of permitted investments to 

include qualifying Euro-denominated 

sovereign debt, the proposed rule 

change generally should provide ICE 

Clear Europe with enhanced efficiency 

and flexibility in how it manages and 

invests customer funds and cash 

balances, in a manner consistent with 

applicable regulatory requirements. The 

Commission believes that these aspects 

of the proposed rule change would help 

to diversify permissible investments for 

such cash in a conservative manner that 

protects against loss. Thus, the 

Commission believes these aspects of 

the proposed rule change should ensure 

that ICE Clear Europe will have 

sufficient resources to promptly and 

accurately clear and settle securities 

transactions and, therefore, are 

consistent with Section 17A(b)(3)(F) of 

the Act.14 Further, the Commission 

believes that the proposed amendments 

to add a new category of commercial 

bank deposits as an authorized 

investment for ICE Clear Europe’s 

regulatory capital, to facilitate 

investments in bank deposits or other 

non-overnight investments by only 

requiring a variety of maturity dates 

where applicable, and to add GBP and 

EUR agency bonds with AA–/Aa3 credit 

ratings and a 2% haircut as acceptable 

collateral for reverse repo, should also 

enhance ICE Clear Europe’s efficiency in 

meeting its investment management 

objective to safeguard the principal of 

cash and maintain sufficient liquidity 

for its payment obligations. By having 

defined investment criteria and 

conservative investment management 

procedures, the Commission believes 

that these aspects of the proposed rule 

change should also help to ensure that 

cash is invested reasonably, 

conservatively, and in a manner that 

protects against loss, which, in turn, 

should help to thereby assuring the 

safeguarding of securities and funds 

which are in the custody or control of 

ICE Clear Europe or for which it is 

responsible, and, therefore, are 

consistent with Section 17A(b)(3)(F) of 

the Act.15

Similarly, the Commission believes 

that by facilitating ICE Clear Europe’s 

use of central bank deposits, including 

by expanding the list of allowed central 

banks; updating certain concentration 

and similar limits for investment in US, 

UK, and EU government bonds; and 

adding acceptable collateral for reverse 

repo, the proposed rule change would 

expand ICE Clear Europe’s permitted 

investments to include investments that 

should be generally reasonable and 

conservative and have minimal credit, 

market, and liquidity risks. Moreover, 

the Commission believes that the other 

changes to the authorized investments 

discussed above, i.e., eliminating the 

maximum issuer/counterparty 

concentration limit for French and 

German sovereign bonds, removing the 

credit rating requirement for UK and US 

sovereign bonds as acceptable collateral 

for reverse repo, and specifying that 

only collateral that meets the CFTC 

Order requirements is acceptable for 

FCM customer funds invested in EUR 

reverse repo, should not reduce the 

reasonableness or conservativeness of 

ICE Clear Europe’s permitted 

investments. Thus, the Commission 

believes these aspects of the proposed 

rule change should provide ICE Clear 

Europe additional investment options 

that should help to safeguard skin in the 

game, regulatory capital, and Clearing 

Member cash against loss. Because the 

loss of skin in the game, regulatory 

capital, and Clearing Member cash 

could impair ICE Clear Europe’s ability 

to operate and therefore clear and settle 

transactions and safeguard securities 

and funds, the Commission believes that 

these aspects of the proposed rule 

change should be consistent with 

Section 17A(b)(3)(F) of the Act.16

Therefore, for these reasons, the 

Commission finds that the proposed 

rule change should promote the prompt 

and accurate clearance and settlement of 

securities transactions and assure the 

safeguarding of securities and funds in 

ICE Clear Europe’s custody and control, 

consistent with the Section 17A(b)(3)(F) 

of the Act.17

B. Consistency With Rule 17Ad– 

22(e)(16) 

Rule 17Ad–22(e)(16) requires that ICE 

Clear Europe establish, implement, 

maintain and enforce written policies 

and procedures reasonably designed to, 

among other things, safeguard its own 

and its Clearing Members’ assets, 

minimize the risk of loss of loss and 

delay in access to these assets, and 

invest such assets in instruments with 

minimal credit, market, and liquidity 

risks.18 The Commission believes that 

by clarifying ICE Clear Europe’s criteria 

for investments of cash, updating 

investment concentration limits and 

similar requirements for EU, US, and 

UK government bonds, and generally 

expanding permitted investment 

options to facilitate ICE Clear Europe’s 

flexibility to diversify investments, the 

proposed rule change should help to 

ensure that ICE Clear Europe safeguards 

its own and its participants’ assets— 

specifically, ICE Clear Europe’s deposits 

of cash, which would include cash 

posted by Clearing Members to satisfy 

their margin and guaranty fund 

requirements—in a manner that should 

appropriately minimize the risk of loss 

or delay of such assets. 

In addition, the proposed rule change 

would facilitate ICE Clear Europe’s use 

of commercial and central bank 

deposits, in particular by adding the 

Federal Reserve and ECB to the list of 

allowed central banks to facilitate access 

to these deposits. Further, the proposed 

rule change would expand the scope of 

acceptable collateral in reverse 

repurchase agreements subject to 

appropriate limitations. The 

Commission believes these investments, 

as well as the investments currently 

permitted under the Procedures, 

constitute instruments with minimal 

credit, market, and liquidity risks. 

Therefore, the Commission believes the 

proposed rule change generally should 

help to ensure that ICE Clear Europe 

invests cash reasonably and in a manner 

that protects against loss which, in turn, 

should help ICE Clear Europe to 

safeguard its own and its Clearing 

Members’ assets and invest such assets 

in instruments with minimal credit, 

market, and liquidity risks. For these 

reasons, the Commission finds that the 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 242 / Wednesday, December 16, 2020 / Notices 81551 

19 17 CFR 240.17Ad–22(e)(16). 

20 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

21 17 CFR 240.17Ad–22(e)(16). 

22 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(2). 

23 In approving the proposed rule change, the 

Commission considered the proposal’s impact on 

efficiency, competition, and capital formation. 15 

U.S.C. 78c(f). 

24 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(12). 

proposed rule change is consistent with 

Rule 17Ad–22(e)(16).19

IV. Conclusion 

On the basis of the foregoing, the 

Commission finds that the proposed 

rule change is consistent with the 

requirements of the Act, and in 

particular, with the requirements of 

Section 17A(b)(3)(F) of the Act 20 and 

Rule 17Ad–22(e)(16).21

It is therefore ordered pursuant to 

Section 19(b)(2) of the Act 22 that the 

proposed rule change (SR–ICEEU–2020– 

013), be, and hereby is, approved.23

For the Commission, by the Division of 

Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated 

authority.24

J. Matthew DeLesDernier, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2020–27597 Filed 12–15–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

[Public Notice 11278] 

30-Day Notice of Proposed Information 

Collection: Generic Clearance for the 

Collection of Qualitative Feedback on 

Agency Service Delivery 

ACTION: Notice of request for public 

comment and submission to OMB of 

proposed collection of information. 

SUMMARY: The Department of State has 

submitted the information collection 

described below to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

approval. In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 we 

are requesting comments on this 

collection from all interested 

individuals and organizations. The 

purpose of this Notice is to allow 30 

days for public comment. 

DATES: Submit comments up to January 

15, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent 

within 30 days of publication of this 

notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain. Find this particular 

information collection by selecting 

‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open 

for Public Comments’’ or by using the 

search function. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Direct requests for additional 

information regarding the collection 

listed in this notice, including requests 

for copies of the proposed collection 

instrument and supporting documents 

to Pamela Watkins, Department of State, 

Office of Directives Management, who 

may be reached at watkinspk@state.gov 

or 202–485–2159. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

• Title of Information Collection: 

Generic Clearance for the Collection of 

Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service 

Delivery. 

• OMB Control Number: 1405–0193. 

• Type of Request: Extension of a 

Currently Approved Collection. 

• Originating Office: Office of 

Directives Management, A/GIS/DIR. 

• Form Number: Various public 

surveys. 

• Respondents: Individuals 

responding to Department of State 

customer service evaluation requests. 

• Estimated Number of Respondents: 

2,000,000. 

• Estimated Number of Responses: 

2,000,000. 

• Average Time per Response: 3.5 

minutes. 

• Total Estimated Burden Time: 

116,667 annual hours. 

• Frequency: Once per request. 

• Obligation to Respond: Voluntary. 

We are soliciting public comments to 

permit the Department to: 

• Evaluate whether the proposed 

information collection is necessary for 

the proper functions of the Department. 

• Evaluate the accuracy of our 

estimate of the time and cost burden for 

this proposed collection, including the 

validity of the methodology and 

assumptions used. 

• Enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected. 

• Minimize the reporting burden on 

those who are to respond, including the 

use of automated collection techniques 

or other forms of information 

technology. 

Please note that comments submitted 

in response to this Notice are public 

record. Before including any detailed 

personal information, you should be 

aware that your comments as submitted, 

including your personal information, 

will be available for public review. 

Abstract of Proposed Collection 

The information collection activity 

will garner qualitative customer 

feedback in an efficient, timely manner, 

in accordance with the Administration’s 

commitment to improving service 

delivery. This qualitative feedback will 

provide insights into customer 

perceptions, experiences and 

expectations, provide an early warning 

of issues with service, or focus attention 

on areas where communication, training 

or changes in operations might improve 

delivery of products or services. These 

collections will allow for ongoing, 

collaborative and actionable 

communications between the Agency 

and its customers. It will also allow 

feedback to contribute directly to the 

improvement of program management. 

Feedback collected under this generic 

clearance will provide useful 

information, but it will not yield data 

that can be used for quantitative 

information collections that are 

designed to yield reliably actionable 

results, such as monitoring trends over 

time or documenting program 

performance. Such data uses require 

more rigorous designs that address: the 

target population to which 

generalizations will be made, the 

sampling frame, the sample design 

(including stratification and clustering), 

the precision requirements or power 

calculations that justify the proposed 

sample size, the expected response rate, 

methods for assessing potential nonresponse bias, the protocols for data 

collection, and any testing procedures 

that were or will be undertaken prior 

fielding the study. Depending on the 

degree of influence the results are likely 

to have, such collections may still be 

eligible for submission for other generic 

mechanisms that are designed to yield 

quantitative results. 

The 60-day Notice was published on 

July 15, 2020 (85 FR 42966). The annual 

burden was increased to 116,667 from 

58,333 in this 30-day Notice to capture 

the impact of COVID–19 on Department 

services. 

Methodology 

Respondents will fill out a brief 

customer survey after completing their 

interaction with a Department Program 

Office or Embassy. Surveys are designed 

to gather feedback on the customer’s 

experiences. 

Zachary Parker, 

Director. 

[FR Doc. 2020–27636 Filed 12–15–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4710–24–P 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES