FRH6_20231227_omb

Supporting Statement for the
Reporting Requirements Associated with Section 208.22 of Regulation H
(Notifications Related to Community Development and
Public Welfare Investments by State Member Banks)
(FR H-6; OMB No. 7100-0278)
Summary
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), under authority
delegated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has extended for three years,
without revision, the Reporting Requirements Associated with Section 208.22 of Regulation H
(Notifications Related to Community Development and Public Welfare Investments by State
Member Banks) (FR H-6; OMB No. 7100-0278). Regulation H - Membership of State Banking
Institutions in the Federal Reserve System (12 CFR Part 208) requires state member banks
(SMBs) to comply with the following Regulation H notification requirements in connection with
their community development or public welfare investment activity:
• If the investment does not require prior Board approval, a written notice must be sent to
the appropriate Federal Reserve Bank.1
• If the investment does require prior Board approval, a request for approval must be sent
to the appropriate Federal Reserve Bank.2
The estimated total annual burden for the FR H-6 is 919 hours. No formal reporting form
is required for these notification requirements, although the Board supplies a model form that
banks may use to notify the appropriate Federal Reserve Bank of investments that do not require
prior approval. The model form is available on the Board’s public website at
https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/reportingforms.
Background and Justification
On December 7, 1994, the Board added to Regulation H a new section entitled
Community Development and Public Welfare Investments to implement a provision of the
Depository Institutions Disaster Relief Act of 1992. The statutory provision authorizes SMBs to
make investments designed primarily to promote the public welfare to the extent permissible
under state law and subject to regulation by the Board. Regulation H permits SMBs to make
certain public welfare investments without prior approval and to make other public welfare
investments with specific Board approval.
An SMB may make a public welfare investment without prior approval if the following
conditions are met:
• the investment is in a corporation, limited partnership, or other entity, and meets the
criteria to be a public welfare investment 12 CFR 208.22(b)(1)(i)-(iv),
• the investment is permitted by state law,
• the investment will not expose the SMB to liability beyond the amount of the investment,
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2

12 CFR 208.22(b), 12 CFR 208.22(c).
12 CFR 208.22(d).

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the aggregate of all such investments of the SMB does not exceed the sum of five percent
of its capital stock and surplus,
the SMB is at least adequately capitalized, has received a composite CAMELS of “1” or
“2” as of its most recent examination, and has received an overall rating of “1” or “2” as
of its most recent consumer compliance examination, and
the SMB is not subject to any written agreement, cease-and-desist order, capital directive,
prompt corrective action directive, or memorandum of understanding issued by the Board
or a Reserve Bank.3

If these conditions are not met, an SMB must receive Board approval before making an
investment. In no event may aggregate public welfare investments exceed 15 percent of the
SMB’s capital stock and surplus.4
The information regarding public welfare investments that Regulation H requires SMB’s
to submit is used for supervisory compliance and helps the Federal Reserve’s Community
Affairs Office (CAO) to support the Federal Reserve System’s economic growth objectives by
promoting community development and fair and impartial access to credit. The CAO of each
Reserve Bank uses this information to develop specific projects and services to meet its regional
market’s needs for information relating to community development activities. This information is
not available from other sources.
Description of Information Collection
The public welfare investment provisions of Regulation H contain two types of
notification requirements: (1) the public welfare investment notice and (2) the request for prior
approval.5
For public welfare investments not requiring prior approval, the SMB must notify its
Federal Reserve Bank within 30 calendar days of the investment, including the amount of the
investment and the identity of the entity in which the investment is made. The notice may be
submitted on bank letterhead or on the optional FR H-6 model form.6 Although not explicitly
required under Regulation H, the model form also requests that SMBs provide a description of
the investment, including details regarding how the investment meets the definition of public
welfare or community development. This information is used by Reserve Bank staff to evaluate
the permissibility of the investment. Reserve Bank staff sometimes contact the investing bank to
obtain such information when it is not provided in the notice.
When a public welfare investment requires prior Board approval, the SMB must submit a
request for approval to the appropriate Federal Reserve Bank by way of a letter or other
submission on bank letterhead. The request should include, at a minimum:
• the amount of the proposed investment,
• a description of the entity in which the investment is to be made,
3

12 CFR 208.22(b).
12 U.S.C. § 338a.
5
12 CFR 208.22.
6
The FR H-6 model form can be found at https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/reportingforms.
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an explanation of how the investment meets the statutory definition of a public welfare
investment,
a description of the SMB’s potential liability under the proposed investment,
the amount of the SMB’s aggregate outstanding public welfare investments,
the amount of the SMB’s capital stock and surplus, and
the reason(s) why the investment is ineligible to be made without prior approval.
Respondent Panel
The FR H-6 panel comprises SMBs.
Frequency and Time Schedule

The FR H-6 is event-generated. The two notifications (public welfare investment notice
and request for approval) are event-generated. An SMB must file a notice with the appropriate
Reserve Bank within 30 calendar days of making an investment that does not require prior
approval. For investments requiring prior approval, the Board must act on the request within 60
calendar days of receipt or notify the requesting SMB that a longer period of time will be
required.
Public Availability of Data
There are no data related to this information collection available to the public.
Legal Status
The FR H-6 is authorized by section 9(23) of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. § 338a),
which authorizes the Board to prescribe regulations with regard to state member banks making
investments designed primarily to promote the public welfare. The Board also has the authority
to require reports from state member banks (12 U.S.C. §§ 248(a) and 324). The obligation to
respond is mandatory with respect to the notice required under 12 CFR 208.22(c) and required to
obtain a benefit with respect to the request for prior approval under 12 CFR 208.22(d).
Individual respondents may request that information submitted to the Board through the
FR H-6 be kept confidential. If a respondent requests confidential treatment, the Board will
determine whether the information is entitled to confidential treatment on a case-by-case basis.
Information collected through the FR H-6 may be kept confidential under exemption 4 of the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which applies to commercial or financial information that
is both customarily and actually treated as private (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4)). Additionally, to the
extent the FR H-6 contains information used in examination reports, it may be withheld from
disclosure under FOIA exemption 8, which applies to information “related to examination,
operating, or condition reports” (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(8)).
Consultation Outside the Agency
There has been no consultation outside the Federal Reserve System.

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Public Comments
On August 18, 2023, the Board published an initial notice in the Federal Register (88 FR
56628) requesting public comment for 60 days on the extension, without revision, of the FR H-6.
The comment period for this notice expired on October 17, 2023. The Board did not receive any
comments. The Board adopted the extension, without revision, of the FR H-6 as originally
proposed. On December 26, 2023, the Board published a final notice in the Federal Register (88
FR 88921).
Estimate of Respondent Burden
As shown in the table below, the estimated total annual burden for the FR H-6 is 919
hours. The estimated number of respondents listed is based on the number of notices and
requests received by the Federal Reserve in 2022. The count of public welfare notices includes a
tally of all post notice filings including filings submitted without using FR H-6 received. The
burden estimate was produced using the standard Board burden calculation methodology. These
reporting requirements represent less than 1 percent of the Board’s total paperwork burden.

FR H-6
Public welfare investment
notice
Request for prior approval

Estimated
number of
respondents7

Estimated
annual
frequency

120
131

1
1

Estimated
Estimated
average hours annual burden
per response
hours
2.2
5

Total

264
655
919

The estimated total annual cost to the public for the FR H-6 is $60,884.8
Sensitive Questions
This information collection contains no questions of a sensitive nature, as defined by
OMB guidelines.

7

Of these respondents, none are considered small entities as defined by the Small Business Administration (i.e.,
entities with less than $850 million in total assets). Size standards effective March 17, 2023. See
https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards.
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Total cost to the responding public is estimated using the following formula: total burden hours, multiplied by the
cost of staffing, where the cost of staffing is calculated as a percent of time for each occupational group multiplied
by the group’s hourly rate and then summed (30% Office & Administrative Support at $22, 45% Financial
Managers at $80, 15% Lawyers at $79, and 10% Chief Executives at $118). Hourly rates for each occupational
group are the (rounded) mean hourly wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment
and Wages, May 2022, published April 25, 2023, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm. Occupations
are defined using the BLS Standard Occupational Classification System, https://www.bls.gov/soc/.

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Estimate of Cost to the Federal Reserve System
The estimated cost to the Federal Reserve System for collecting and processing this
information collection is negligible.

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