820 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 5, 2005 / Notices 

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).

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

Formations of, Acquisitions by, and 

Mergers of Bank Holding Companies

The companies listed in this notice 

have applied to the Board for approval, 

pursuant to the Bank Holding Company 

Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.) 

(BHC Act), Regulation Y (12 CFR Part 

225), and all other applicable statutes 

and regulations to become a bank 

holding company and/or to acquire the 

assets or the ownership of, control of, or 

the power to vote shares of a bank or 

bank holding company and all of the 

banks and nonbanking companies 

owned by the bank holding company, 

including the companies listed below.

The applications listed below, as well 

as other related filings required by the 

Board, are available for immediate 

inspection at the Federal Reserve Bank 

indicated. The application also will be 

available for inspection at the offices of 

the Board of Governors. Interested 

persons may express their views in 

writing on the standards enumerated in 

the BHC Act (12 U.S.C. 1842(c)). If the 

proposal also involves the acquisition of 

a nonbanking company, the review also 

includes whether the acquisition of the 

nonbanking company complies with the 

standards in section 4 of the BHC Act 

(12 U.S.C. 1843). Unless otherwise 

noted, nonbanking activities will be 

conducted throughout the United States. 

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 each of these applications 

must be received at the Reserve Bank 

indicated or the offices of the Board of 

Governors not later than January 31, 

2005.

A. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

(Sue Costello, Vice President) 1000 

Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 

30303:

1. Crescent Banking Company, Jasper, 

Georgia; to acquire 100 percent of the 

voting shares of Futurus Financial 

Services, Inc., and thereby indirectly 

acquire Futurus Bank, N.A., both of 

Alpharetta, Georgia.

B. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

(Glenda Wilson, Community Affairs 

Officer) 411 Locust Street, St. Louis, 

Missouri 63166-2034:

1. FSB Bancorp, Inc., Houston, Texas; 

to become a bank holding company by 

acquiring 100 percent of the voting 

shares of Evergreen Bancshares, Inc., 

and thereby indirectly acquire First 

State Bank, both of Crossett, Arkansas.

C. Federal Reserve Bank of San 

Francisco (Tracy Basinger, Director, 

Regional and Community Bank Group) 

101 Market Street, San Francisco, 

California 94105-1579:

1. Frontier Financial Corporation, 

Everett, Washington; to acquire up to 20 

percent of the voting shares of Skagit 

State Bank, Burlington, Washington.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System, December 30, 2004.

Margaret McCloskey Shanks,

Assistant Secretary of the Board.

[FR Doc. 05–209 Filed 1–4–05; 8:45 am]

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 have 

been 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 December 

31, 2006, the current PRA clearance for 

information collection requirements for 

its Mortgage Disclosure Study. That 

clearance was scheduled to expire on 

November 30, 2004. On November 22, 

2004, the OMB granted the FTC’s 

request for a short-term extension to 

December 31, 2004, to allow for this 

second opportunity to comment.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before February 4, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are 

invited to submit written comments. 

Comments should refer to ‘‘Mortgage 

Disclosure Study—FTC File No. 

P025505,’’ 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 X), 600 

Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., 

Washington, DC 20580. 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. Alternatively, comments 

may be filed in electronic form (in 

ASCII format, WordPerfect, or Microsoft 

Word) as part of or as an attachment to 

e-mail messages directed to the 

following e-mail box: 

MortgageDS@ftc.gov. If the comment 

contains any material for which 

confidential treatment is requested, it 

must be filed in paper form, and the first 

page of the document must be clearly 

labeled ‘‘Confidential.’’ 1

All comments should additionally be 

submitted to: Office of Management and 

Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the 

Federal Trade Commission. Comments 

should be submitted via facsimile to 

(202) 395–6974 because U.S. Postal Mail 

is subject to lengthy delays due to 

heightened security precautions. 

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 

should be addressed to James M. Lacko, 

Economist, Bureau of Economics, 

Federal Trade Commission, 600 

Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., 

Washington, DC 20580. Telephone: 

(202) 326–3387; e-mail 

MortgageDS@ftc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

September 28, 2004, the FTC sought 

comment on the information collection 

requirements associated with the 

Mortgage Disclosure Study (OMB 

Control Number 3084–0126). See 69 FR 

57932. No comments were received. 

Pursuant to the 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 

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 5, 2005 / Notices 821

2 In its September 28, 2004 Federal Register 

Notice, the FTC indicated it was seeking to extend 

the current PRA clearance through December 31, 

2005. The FTC staff expect the consumer research 

for the Mortgage Disclosure Survey to be completed 

by that date, but is now seeking to extend the 

current PRA clearance through December 31, 2006, 

to allow for any unanticipated delays.

3The September 28, 2004 Federal Register Notice 

included all of the in-depth interviews in the 

extension request; 25 of those interviews were 

subsequently completed under the current 

clearance and are not a part of this extension 

request.

existing paperwork clearance for the 

rule.2

Deceptive lending cases at the FTC 

and elsewhere suggest that consumers 

who do not understand the terms of 

their mortgages can be subject to 

deception, that deception can occur 

even when consumers receive the 

disclosures required by the Truth-inLending Act, 15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.

(TILA), and that deception about 

mortgage terms can result in substantial 

consumer injury. 

Despite a long history of mortgage 

disclosure requirements and many 

legislative and regulatory proposals 

regarding disclosures, little empirical 

evidence exists to document the effect 

of current disclosures on consumer 

understanding of mortgage terms, 

consumer mortgage shopping behavior, 

or consumer mortgage choice. 

The Mortgage Disclosure Study will 

examine: (1) How consumers search for 

and choose mortgages; (2) how 

consumers use and understand 

information about mortgages, including 

required disclosures; and (3) whether 

improved disclosures might improve 

consumer understanding, consumer 

mortgage shopping, and consumers’

ability to avoid deception. The research 

also may assist the targeting of the FTC’s 

enforcement actions by identifying areas 

most prone to consumer 

misunderstanding and lender deception 

and may help refine disclosure remedies 

imposed on deceptive lenders. 

1. Description of the Collection of 

Information and Proposed Use 

The FTC is conducting this study in 

two phases: (1) A qualitative research 

phase; and (2) a quantitative research 

phase. The qualitative research phase 

includes two focus groups and 36 indepth interviews. The quantitative 

research will include copy tests of 

current and alternative disclosures. 

Results from the first phase will be used 

to refine the design of the second phase. 

The two focus groups and 25 of the 

in-depth interviews have been 

completed under the current PRA 

clearance and are not part of this 

extension request.3 Eleven of the indepth interviews have not yet been 

conducted. Accordingly, this extension 

request covers information collection for 

the 11 in-depth interviews that remain 

for the qualitative phase and the copy 

tests for the quantitative phase.

The remaining in-depth interviews 

will be conducted with 11 consumers 

who have recently completed a 

mortgage transaction. Respondents will 

be asked to bring their loan documents 

to the interview. Some of the interviews 

will be with consumers who obtained 

their mortgage from a prime lender and 

some will be with consumers who 

obtained their mortgage from a 

subprime lender. The purpose of the 

interviews is to gain in-depth 

knowledge of the extent to which 

consumers use, search for, and 

understand mortgage information—

including information about their own 

recent loans. 

The quantitative research phase will 

consist of copy test interviews of 800 

consumers who entered into a mortgage 

transaction within the previous two 

years. If possible, approximately half of 

the respondents will be consumers who 

obtained their mortgage from a prime 

lender and half will be consumers who 

obtained their mortgage from a 

subprime lender. The purpose of the 

copy tests will be to examine whether 

alternative disclosures can improve 

consumer understanding of mortgage 

terms and help to reduce potential 

deception about mortgage offers. The 

findings from the focus groups and indepth interviews will be used to refine 

the alternative disclosures used in the 

copy tests. 

All information will be collected on a 

voluntary basis. The FTC has contracted 

with two consumer research firms (one 

each for the qualitative and quantitative 

phases) to recruit respondents, conduct 

the interviews, and write a brief 

methodological report. The results will 

assist the FTC in determining how 

required disclosures and other 

information affect consumers’ ability to 

understand the cost and features of 

mortgages. This understanding will 

further the FTC’s mission of protecting 

consumers and competition in this 

important market. 

2. Estimated Hours Burden 

Qualitative Research 

The qualitative phase is complete 

except for 11 in-depth interviews. If all 

respondents for those interviews are 

single decision makers, this would 

amount to an 11 hour burden. However, 

some of the interviews may include 

couples. Assuming that about half of the 

interviews include couples, the hours 

burden for the in-depth interviews 

would increase to 17 hours ((6 × 2 

hours) + (5 × 1 hour)). 

Quantitative Research 

Approximately 800 consumers who 

engaged in a mortgage transaction 

during the previous two years will 

participate in the quantitative phase of 

the research. Each copy test interview 

will take roughly 20–30 minutes. The 

estimated hours burden for the 

quantitative phase ranges from 267 

hours (800 respondents × 1⁄3 hour per 

respondent) to 400 hours (800 

respondents × 1⁄2 hour per respondent). 

Total 

The total estimated hours burden for 

both phases of the study ranges from 

278 hours (11 hours + 267 hours) to 417 

hours (17 hours + 400 hours).

William E. Kovacic, 

General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 05–176 Filed 1–4–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6750–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. 2004N–0437]

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission for Office of 

Management and Budget Review; 

Comment Request; Medical Devices; 

Third-Party Review Under the Food 

and Drug Administration 

Modernization Act, Third-Party 

Premarket Submission Review, and 

Quality System Inspections Under the 

United States/European Community 

Mutual Recognition Agreement

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, 

HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Food and Drug 

Administration (FDA) is announcing 

that a proposed collection of 

information has been submitted to the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) for review and clearance under 

the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Fax written comments on the 

collection of information by February 4, 

2005.

ADDRESSES: OMB is still experiencing 

significant delays in the regular mail, 

including first class and express mail, 

and messenger deliveries are not being 

accepted. To ensure that comments on 

the information collection are received, 

OMB recommends that comments be 

faxed to the Office of Information and