Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 3038-0107)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: FinTech Forward 2019 Feedback Survey

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this collection is to gather responses from attendees and online participants of FinTech Forward 2019, a one-day conference on FinTech issues impacting markets regulated by the CFTC. The goal of the collection is to identify strengths and possible weaknesses in all aspects related to the conference to make improvements in subsequent years.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

In-person attendees and online participants who register for, or web stream, the FinTech Forward Conference. Respondents may include the general public, market participants, innovators, entrepreneurs, regulators, policy makers, with an interest in virtual currencies, smart contracts, big data, artificial intelligence and other FinTech related issues.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ X ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name:_____Dan Rutherford_____________________________

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:
Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

1. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

2. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Conference attendees	3501	10 minutes	58 hours
Totals	350	10 minutes	58 Hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $277.

The only cost to the federal government for this sample would be staff time to email the invitation to take the survey, post the link to the survey, monitor results, and draft a brief report for management. In all, this should total approximately four hours. We also assume the hourly 2019 salary of a Washington, D.C.-based staff member in the CT-14 pay band.² The Commission will employ an enterprise-wide online survey application for this collection. The Commission pays an annual software-as-a-service licensing fee for this application, which is used for internal purposes but can also be used for external polling. Therefore, this collection would not incur any additional charges to operate or analyze.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ X ] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

A registration list of in-person attendees of the conference will be the primary universe of potential respondents.³ We will also post a survey link with the live web stream to possibly capture viewers who opt-in to provide feedback. The survey itself would not collect PII, and would only be made available to those who register to attend the event in-person and web stream viewers. No other sampling is being considered.

In-person registrants are required to provide their email addresses when they register. After the event, these registrants would receive an email containing a link and a request to complete the voluntary survey. The same link would be provided to web stream viewers at the end of the conference webcast, who are not required to furnish PII in order to access or complete the survey. The CFTC web site does not use persistent cookies to retain PII of web stream viewers.⁴

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

Instructions for completing Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is the subject of the request. (e.g. Comment card for soliciting feedback on xxxx)

PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and how it will be used. If this is part of a larger study or effort, please include this in your explanation.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Provide a brief description of the targeted group or groups for this collection of information. These groups must have experience with the program.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.

CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly certify, the collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will be disapproved.

Personally Identifiable Information: Provide answers to the questions. Note: Agencies should only collect PII to the extent necessary, and they should only retain PII for the period of time that is necessary to achieve a specific objective.

Gifts or Payments: If you answer yes to the question, please describe the incentive and provide a justification for the amount.

BURDEN HOURS:

Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in terms of the following categories: (1) Individuals or Households; (2) Private Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal governments; or (4) Federal Government. Only one type of respondent can be selected per row.

No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of Respondents.

Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time (in minutes) required for a respondent to participate (e.g. fill out a survey or participate in a focus group)

Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of Respondents and the Participation Time then divide by 60.

FEDERAL COST: Provide an estimate of the annual cost to the Federal government.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents. Please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them. If the answer is yes, to the first question, you may provide the sampling plan in an attachment.

In-person attendees will register for the conference via an online registration application that will capture their email addresses. These participants would receive an email containing a request to complete the voluntary survey. Likewise, a link to the survey would be posted alongside the link to participate via webcast. Webcast participants would have the option to voluntarily respond to the survey after viewing the webcast. The survey would be made available to both in-person and webcast attendees, who would then self-select to take the survey. No other sampling is being considered.

Administration of the Instrument: Identify how the information will be collected. More than one box may be checked. Indicate whether there will be interviewers (e.g. for surveys) or facilitators (e.g., for focus groups) used.

The information would be collected via an online survey application.

Submit all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

1 This is an estimate of the number of people who would complete the survey. The estimate assumes a similar number of in-person registrants (approximately 500) and online participants (approximately 1,500) as participated in the same event in 2018. We further assume that roughly half of those registering to attend in person and close to 7% of those viewing the event via live web stream would participate in this opt-in survey.

2 The hourly wage is derived from an annual salary of $143,707 for a CT-14 employee living in the Washington DC, who has an annual base salary of $111,125 plus $32,582 (or 29.32%) for locality increase, according to the CFTC 2019 Pay Table. The annual salary is then converted to the hourly wage, and the total of four hours rounded up to a whole dollar amount.

3 CFTC SORN-53: Mailing, Event, and General Contacts Lists, 84 FR 17815 (April 26, 2019).

4 See CFTC Website Privacy Policy, https://www.cftc.gov/Transparency/PrivacyOffice/WebSitePrivacyPolicy/index.htm#cookies