Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 24 / Friday, February 5, 2016 / Notices 6261 

ihttps://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/FAQ_

March_2014_0.pdf, accessed Sep 15, 2015. 

and the Receivership Estate has ceased 

to exist as a legal entity. 

Dated: February 1, 2016. 

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. 

Robert E. Feldman, 

Executive Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2016–02153 Filed 2–4–16; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6714–01–P 

FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE 

CORPORATION 

[3064–NEW] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Submission for OMB 

Review; Comment Request Re FDIC 

Small Business Lending Survey 

AGENCY: Federal Deposit Insurance 

Corporation (FDIC). 

ACTION: Notice and Request for 

Comment. 

SUMMARY: The FDIC, as part of its 

continuing effort to reduce paperwork 

and respondent burden, and as required 

by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 

1995, invites the general public and 

other Federal agencies to comment on 

the survey collection instruments for a 

proposed new collection of information, 

a Small Business Lending Survey of 

banks that is proposed to be fielded in 

June 2016. On October 7, 2015, the FDIC 

published a notice in the Federal 

Register requesting comment for 60 

days on the proposed information 

collection (80 FR 60678). Two 

comments were received, and are 

discussed below. The FDIC hereby gives 

notice of its plan to submit to OMB a 

request to approve this new information 

collection, and again invites comment. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before March 7, 2016. 

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are 

invited to submit written comments by 

any of the following methods. All 

comments should reference ‘‘FDIC 

Small Business Lending Survey’’: 

• http://www.FDIC.gov/regulations/

laws/federal/. 

• Email: comments@fdic.gov. Include 

the name of the collection in the subject 

line of the message. 

• Mail: Gary Kuiper (202.898.3877), 

Counsel, MB–3016, or Manuel Cabeza 

(202.898.3767), Counsel, MB–3105, 

Legal Division, Federal Deposit 

Insurance Corporation, 550 17th Street 

NW., Washington, DC 20429. 

• Hand Delivery: Comments may be 

hand-delivered to the guard station at 

the rear of the 550 17th Street Building 

(located on F Street), on business days 

between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Interested members of the public may 

obtain a copy of the survey and related 

instructions by clicking on the link for 

the FDIC Small Business Lending 

Survey on the following Web page: 

http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/

federal/. Interested members of the 

public may also obtain additional 

information about the collection, 

including a paper copy of the proposed 

collection and related instructions, 

without charge, by contacting Gary 

Kuiper or Manuel Cabeza at the address 

or phone number identified above. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The FDIC 

proposes to establish the following 

collection of information: 

Title: FDIC Small Business Lending 

Survey 

OMB Number: New collection. 

Frequency of Response: Once. 

Affected Public: FDIC-insured 

depository institutions. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

1,500 respondents with assets less 

than $1 billion. 

500 respondents with assets of $1 

billion or greater. 

Average time per response: 

3 hours per respondent with assets 

less than $1 billion. 

6 hours per respondent with assets of 

$1 billion or greater. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden: 

3 hours × 1,500 respondents = 4,500 

hours 

6 hours × 500 respondents = 3,000 

hours. 

Total: 7,500 hours. 

General Description of Collection 

Small businesses are an important 

component of the U.S. economy. 

According to the Small Business 

Administration, small firms accounted 

for almost half of private-sector 

employment and 63 percent of net new 

jobs between mid-1993 and 2013.i

Many 

small businesses have little or no direct 

access to capital markets and are thus 

reliant on bank financing. For banks, 

small business lending is an important 

way that they help meet their 

communities’ needs, especially for the 

many banks that primarily focus on 

commercial rather than consumer 

lending. 

Due to the importance of small 

businesses to the U.S. economy and the 

importance of bank lending to small 

businesses, the proposed FDIC Small 

Business Lending Survey, which 

surveys banks, will provide important 

data to complement existing sources of 

data on small business lending. The 

proposed survey data will not duplicate 

existing sources of data and will provide 

additional insight into many aspects of 

small business lending. 

The FDIC Small Business Lending 

Survey, proposed to begin data 

collection in June 2016, is designed to 

yield heretofore unavailable nationally 

representative estimates on the volume 

and details of small business loans 

extended by FDIC-insured banks. In 

addition, the survey will provide new 

information on banks’ perceived 

competition and market area for small 

business lending. The survey will yield 

nationally representative estimates of 

small business lending by banks of 

several different asset size categories 

and with different levels of urban or 

rural presence. 

In addition to the questions on small 

business lending, the new survey will 

include some questions related to 

consumer transaction accounts that are 

directly responsive to the mandate in 

Section 7 of the Federal Deposit 

Insurance Reform Conforming 

Amendments Act of 2005 (‘‘Reform 

Act’’) (Pub. L. 109–173), which calls for 

the FDIC to conduct ongoing surveys 

‘‘on efforts by insured depository 

institutions to bring those individuals 

and families who have rarely, if ever, 

held a checking account, a savings 

account or other type of transaction or 

check cashing account at an insured 

depository institution (hereafter in this 

section referred to as the ‘unbanked’) 

into the conventional finance system.’’ 

Section 7 of the Reform Act further 

instructs the FDIC to consider several 

factors in its conduct of the surveys, 

including: ‘‘What cultural, language and 

identification issues as well as 

transaction costs appear to most prevent 

‘unbanked’ individuals from 

establishing conventional accounts.’’ 

The consumer account-focused 

questions are designed to provide a 

factual basis for examining 

identification issues and transaction 

costs related to establishing mainstream 

transaction accounts at banks. These 

consumer account-focused questions 

have been added to the Small Business 

Lending Survey in lieu of fielding a 

separate second survey to respond to the 

Congressional mandate. The reason for 

the consolidation of these efforts is to 

reduce the burden on banks and 

increase the participation rate relative to 

fielding two separate surveys. 

Comment Discussion 

On October 7, 2015 (80 FR 60678), the 

FDIC issued a request for comment on 

a proposed new collection of 

information, a Small Business Lending 

Survey of banks that is proposed to be 

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6262 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 24 / Friday, February 5, 2016 / Notices 

fielded in June 2016. The FDIC received 

two comments related to this survey 

effort. 

One commenter suggested that the 

FDIC separate the proposed survey into 

two separate surveys, one on small 

business lending and one on consumer 

bank accounts, in order to encourage 

participation, reduce the burden on 

respondents and ensure the accuracy of 

information collected regarding 

consumer bank accounts. To ensure 

accurate responses and minimize the 

effort necessary to gather information 

needed for responses, the FDIC 

conducted three rounds of cognitive 

testing of the survey questions across 

the U.S. in 10 states with 40 banks of 

different sizes and that serve different 

types of market areas. The cognitive 

testing was conducted to ensure that the 

survey questions are clearly worded and 

understood by bank personnel, and 

primarily draw on expert knowledge or 

data available in existing internal 

reports. To ensure that the appropriate 

bank personnel respond to the survey 

questions for which they have subjectmatter expertise, the FDIC has also 

organized the questions into distinct 

sections that can be accessed 

independently and answered by 

different bank personnel. In addition, 

the section containing the consumer 

bank account questions has been 

renamed ‘‘Information about Consumer 

Bank Accounts’’ to more clearly indicate 

its focus. Fielding two separate surveys 

at about the same time may decrease 

participation for both surveys, and may 

increase the challenge of 

communicating with banks about the 

surveys, resulting in increased 

confusion. 

One commenter recommended that 

the FDIC accurately explain the goal of 

the consumer bank account questions. 

The FDIC has revised the introduction 

to the ‘‘Information about Consumer 

Bank Accounts’’ section that explains 

the purpose of the consumer bank 

account questions. Additionally, the 

FDIC will transmit the survey to 

respondent banks with a cover letter, 

which will include an overview of the 

survey and a discussion of the 

motivation for each section. 

One commenter queried whether the 

question regarding ‘‘network branded 

general purpose reloadable prepaid 

cards’’ is intended to identify the 

universe of alternatives to full-service 

checking accounts offered by insured 

depository institutions, and, more 

specifically, expressed concern 

regarding the lack of definition of 

‘‘network branded general purpose 

reloadable prepaid cards.’’ The FDIC 

intends this question to inquire about a 

specific type of card-based product 

offered by some insured depository 

institutions, not the universe of 

alternatives to full-service checking 

accounts. This question has been edited 

to refer specifically to ‘‘a Visa or 

MasterCard branded general purpose 

reloadable (GPR) prepaid card that your 

bank markets directly to consumers in 

your market area.’’ This revision is 

responsive to feedback that the FDIC 

received from the three rounds of 

cognitive testing with banks of different 

sizes and that serve different types of 

markets. 

One commenter recommended that 

two questions about bank applicant 

screening processes, specifically 

inquiring whether prior account closure 

due to account mismanagement or 

applicant fraud on a prior account 

would make an applicant ineligible to 

open a basic, entry-level consumer 

checking account, be changed from 

accepting only ‘‘yes’’ and ‘‘no’’ 

responses to also including a third 

potential response of ‘‘it depends.’’ This 

commenter also suggested the addition 

of a follow-up question asking whether 

the bank offers an alternative account to 

those ineligible for the standard 

checking account. The FDIC has 

removed from the survey the question 

regarding applicant fraud on a prior 

account. The question regarding account 

mismanagement has been revised to 

include a third response, that applicants 

in this situation would be ‘‘eligible to 

open a second-chance account or an 

account with more limited features.’’ 

The additional answer was developed in 

response to feedback from cognitive 

testing and is responsive to the 

suggestion offered here by the 

commenter. 

One commenter cautioned that the 

FDIC should be mindful of the 

complexity and range of reasons why 

unbanked and under banked consumers 

do not fully engage with the banking 

system. This commenter expressed 

concern that the proposed consumer 

account questions in the survey focus 

on the costs of bank accounts and prior 

account mismanagement as 

impediments to opening bank accounts 

when studies suggest that the primary 

reasons for consumers not having an 

account are not having enough money 

or not wanting or needing an account. 

This commenter also cautioned that 

regulations may impede banks’ ability to 

offer consumer products that might 

encourage greater participation within 

the banking system. 

The FDIC is interested in the full 

range of reasons why some consumers 

are unbanked. To that end, the FDIC has 

asked, in each biennial Survey of 

Unbanked and Underbanked 

Households, for all the reasons that 

households are unbanked. The 

consumer banking section of this survey 

is intended, in large part, to provide a 

factual context for interpreting some of 

the results of other FDIC research efforts 

into consumer engagement with 

financial services and institutions. The 

consumer bank account questions in 

this survey represent one prong in a 

multi-pronged approach to 

understanding how unbanked and 

lower-income consumers make 

decisions about using financial services, 

how banks engage with those consumers 

through the development of products 

and services and outreach programs, 

and contextual factors that influence the 

choices of both consumers and banks. 

One commenter expressed concern 

regarding the level of effort required of 

banks, especially community banks, to 

respond to the survey. The FDIC has 

made a concerted effort to streamline 

the survey and reduce the burden 

associated with providing responses. 

This effort included three rounds of 

cognitive testing of the survey questions 

with banks of different sizes and that 

serve different types of market areas to 

ensure that the survey will capture 

useful information while minimizing 

response burden. In response to 

feedback from the cognitive testing, the 

FDIC has significantly reduced the 

number of questions in the survey, 

retaining only questions that rely on 

expert knowledge and do not require the 

gathering of data, or questions that 

require data that can be provided from 

core data systems or from existing 

internal reports. Additionally, the FDIC 

has also reduced the number of question 

that will be answered by banks with less 

than $1 billion in assets. In addition, the 

FDIC has revised the survey to include 

screener questions that will also reduce 

the number of questions for banks with 

$1 billion or more in assets whose 

systems do not collect specific 

information. The revised survey is now 

significantly shorter for banks of all 

sizes. 

Request for Comment 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the collection of information is 

necessary for the proper performance of 

the FDIC’s functions, including whether 

the information has practical utility; (b) 

the accuracy of the estimates of the 

burden of the information collection; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the information collection on 

respondents, including through the use 

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Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 24 / Friday, February 5, 2016 / Notices 6263 

* The Los Angeles and Long Beach Port 

Infrastructure and Environmental Programs 

Cooperative Working Agreement (FMC No. 201219), 

West Coast MTO Agreement (FMC No. 201143), 

Pacific Ports Operational Improvements Agreement 

(FMC No. 201227), Ocean Carrier Equipment 

Management Association (FMC No. 202–011284), 

and Los Angeles/Long Beach Port Terminal 

Operator Administrative and Implementation 

Agreement (FMC No. 201178). 

of automated collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology. 

The FDIC will consider all comments 

to determine the extent to which the 

survey instruments should be modified 

prior to submission to OMB for review 

and approval. After the comment period 

closes, comments will be summarized 

and included in the FDIC’s request to 

OMB for approval of the collection. All 

comments will become a matter of 

public record. 

Dated at Washington, DC, this 2nd day of 

February, 2016. 

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. 

Robert E. Feldman, 

Executive Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2016–02237 Filed 2–4–16; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6714–01–P 

FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE 

CORPORATION 

Notice of Termination; 10303 Progress 

Bank of Florida; Tampa, Florida 

The Federal Deposit Insurance 

Corporation (FDIC), as Receiver for 

10303 Progress Bank of Florida, Tampa, 

Florida (Receiver) has been authorized 

to take all actions necessary to terminate 

the receivership estate of Progress Bank 

of Florida (Receivership Estate); the 

Receiver has made all dividend 

distributions required by law. 

The Receiver has further irrevocably 

authorized and appointed FDICCorporate as its attorney-in-fact to 

execute and file any and all documents 

that may be required to be executed by 

the Receiver which FDIC-Corporate, in 

its sole discretion, deems necessary; 

including but not limited to releases, 

discharges, satisfactions, endorsements, 

assignments and deeds. 

Effective February 1, 2016, the 

Receivership Estate has been 

terminated, the Receiver discharged, 

and the Receivership Estate has ceased 

to exist as a legal entity. 

Dated: February 2, 2016. 

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. 

Robert E. Feldman, 

Executive Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2016–02235 Filed 2–4–16; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6714–01–P 

FEDERAL MARITIME COMMISSION 

International Ocean Transportation 

Supply Chain Engagement; Order 

Pursuant to the Shipping Act of 1984, 

46 U.S.C. 40101 et seq. (Shipping Act), 

the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC 

or Commission) regulates the U.S. 

international ocean transportation 

system that supports the transportation 

of goods by water. The purposes of the 

Shipping Act include the requirements 

to ‘‘provide an efficient and economic 

transportation system in the ocean 

commerce of the United States that is, 

insofar as possible, in harmony with, 

and responsive to, international 

shipping practices,’’ and also ‘‘to 

promote the growth and development of 

United States exports through 

competitive and efficient ocean 

transportation and by placing a greater 

reliance on the marketplace.’’ 

In carrying out its broad 

responsibilities under the Shipping Act 

with respect to ocean common carriers, 

U.S. ports, marine terminal operators, 

ocean transportation intermediaries and 

the American exporters and importers 

they serve, the Commission has 

developed an understanding of and an 

expertise in evaluating the U.S. 

international supply chain. As the 

premier competition agency with 

oversight responsibilities for the United 

States foreign ocean transportation 

system, the Commission has extensive 

experience with global maritime and 

marine terminal innovation and 

efficiency issues. 

Maintaining the effectiveness and 

reliability of America’s global supply 

chain is critically important to the 

Nation’s continued economic vitality. 

Approximately $980 billion of 

containerized ocean commerce moves 

through U.S. ports annually. 

Unfortunately, congestion and related 

bottlenecks at ports and other points in 

the Nation’s supply chain have become 

a serious risk to the growth of the U.S. 

economy, job growth, and to our 

Nation’s competitive position in the 

world. Past congestion at major U.S. 

ports has highlighted the impact of 

congestion on the U.S. economy. As a 

result, the U.S. economy suffered 

billions of dollars in losses to the supply 

chain. 

In addition, congestion problems 

contributed to hundreds of millions of 

dollars in losses for U.S. agricultural 

exporters including poultry and meat 

farmers. Perishable fruit and vegetable 

exporters suffered when their cargo was 

not loaded onto ships and sent overseas 

within specific time frames. 

Although the congestion crisis has 

receded, unresolved supply chain 

problems that could produce new 

challenges remain. 

In response to those events, and the 

desire of affected parties to find ways to 

prevent or mitigate similar future 

occurrences, the Commission hosted 

four regional port forums during the fall 

of 2014, in San Pedro, CA (West Coast 

Port Forum), Baltimore, MD (MidAtlantic and Northeast Port Forum), 

Charleston, SC (South Atlantic Port 

Forum) and New Orleans, LA (Gulf 

Coast Port Forum). The forums brought 

together port officials, ocean carriers, 

trucking and warehousing service 

providers, beneficial cargo owners, 

marine terminal operators, stevedoring 

companies, ocean transportation 

intermediaries, and port labor to discuss 

and offer ideas to address port 

congestion. The comments and 

suggestions offered at those forums were 

summarized and developed in an FMC 

report entitled ‘‘U.S. Port Congestion & 

Related International Supply Chain 

Issues: Causes, Consequences and 

Challenges’’ that was released in July 

2015. 

The report identified six major themes 

from the port forums: Investment and 

planning; chassis availability and 

related issues; port drayage and truck 

turn times; extended gate hours, 

PierPASS, and congestion pricing; 

vessel and terminal operations; and 

supply chain planning, collaboration, 

and communication. Some of these 

topics involve longer-term issues such 

as investment and planning. Others 

focus on short and medium-term 

concerns. All of them, however, are at 

the heart of current efforts by various 

groups to develop the flexible, resilient 

and reliable systems necessary for 

ensuring well-functioning international 

supply chains. 

The Commission has also advanced 

port and marine terminal efforts to 

improve supply chain efficiency by 

expediting the implementation of port 

and terminal amendments aimed at 

enhancing the efficient flow of cargo. 

For example, several port and marine 

terminal operator agreements on file 

with the Commission that cover the 

Pacific Coast ports, commit the parties 

to exploring measures for achieving 

improvements with regard to 

congestion, efficiency, fluidity, and 

other operational conditions.* 

Given the economic importance of 

reliable port and terminal operations to 

the effectiveness of the United States 

international supply chain, and the 

Commission’s mandate to ensure an 

efficient and economic transportation 

system for its ocean commerce, the 

Commission has a clear and compelling 

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