Notice2023-15276
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Services Surveys: BE-140, Benchmark Survey of Insurance Transactions by U.S. Insurance Companies With Foreign Persons
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
July 19, 2023
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentEconomic Analysis Bureau
Abstract
The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment preceding submission of the collection to OMB.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 137 (Wednesday, July 19, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 137 (Wednesday, July 19, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46139-46140]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-15276]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Services Surveys: BE-140, Benchmark Survey of Insurance
Transactions by U.S. Insurance Companies With Foreign Persons
AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of information collection, request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other
Federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information
collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information
collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The
purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment
preceding submission of the collection to OMB.
DATES: To ensure consideration, comments regarding this proposed
information collection must be received on or before September 18,
2023.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments to
Christopher Stein, Chief, Services Surveys Branch, Bureau of Economic
Analysis, by email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#eb88839982989f849b838e99c5989f8e8285ab898e8ac58c849d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="46252e342f353229362e2334683532232f280624232768212930">[email protected]</span></a> or <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#61313320020e0c0c040f151221050e024f060e17"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6a3a382b090507070f041e192a0e0509440d051c">[email protected]</span></a>.
Please reference OMB Control Number 0608-0073 in the subject line of
your comments. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or
otherwise sensitive or protected information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
specific questions related to collection activities should be directed
to Christopher Stein, Chief, Services Surveys Branch, Bureau of
Economic Analysis; 301-278-9189; or via email at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4b28233922383f243b232e3965383f2e22250b292e2a652c243d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="04676c766d77706b746c61762a7770616d6a446661652a636b72">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
The Benchmark Survey of Insurance Transactions by U.S. Insurance
Companies with Foreign Persons (Form BE-140) is a periodic survey,
conducted every five years, that collects data from U.S. persons who
engage in international trade in covered insurance transactions. This
mandatory benchmark survey, conducted under the authority of the
International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act, covers the
universe of transactions in insurance services with foreign persons and
is BEA's most comprehensive survey of such transactions. The survey was
last conducted in 2019, covering the 2018 reporting year. A response is
required from U.S. persons subject to the reporting requirements of the
BE-140, whether or not they are contacted by BEA, to ensure complete
coverage of transactions in insurance services between U.S. and foreign
persons. A U.S. person means any individual, branch, partnership,
associated group, association, estate, trust, corporation, or other
organization (whether or not organized under the laws of any State),
resident in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the
United States. A U.S. person must report if they had transactions with
foreign persons in the categories covered by the survey during the 2023
calendar year. For U.S. persons that had combined transactions that
were $2 million or less (based on absolute value) in the insurance
services covered by the survey for calendar year 2023, a completed
benchmark would include totals for each type of transaction in which
they engaged. A U.S. person whose combined transactions with foreign
persons exceeded $2 million (based on absolute value) in the insurance
categories covered by the survey for calendar year 2023, is required to
provide data on the total transactions of each of the covered types of
insurance transactions and must disaggregate the totals by country and
by relationship to the foreign counterparty (foreign affiliate, foreign
parent group, or unaffiliated).
The data are needed to monitor U.S. trade in insurance services, to
analyze the impact of these cross-border services on the U.S. and
foreign economies, to compile and improve the U.S. economic accounts,
to support U.S. commercial policy on trade in services, to conduct
trade promotion, and to improve the ability of U.S. businesses to
identify and evaluate market opportunities. The data are used in
estimating the trade in insurance services component of the U.S.
international transactions accounts (ITAs) and national income and
product accounts (NIPAs).
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is proposing to make several
modifications to the survey for 2023 to further align BEA's statistics
with international guidelines and to collect additional information
that can be used to improve the current estimation methodologies for
published insurance services transactions, increasing the quality and
usefulness of BEA's statistics on trade in insurance services. To
evaluate the feasibility of these changes, BEA conducted outreach to a
sample of nine respondents to the Quarterly Survey of Insurance
Transactions by U.S. Insurance Companies with Foreign Persons (BE-45).
Reporter feedback gathered substantiated the ability of the respondents
to comply with the additional data requests, and that the survey
changes should not impose a material increase in reporting burden.
BEA does not plan to change the exemption levels used for the
previous benchmark survey in 2018.
BEA proposes to:
(1) Add a question to collect information on the largest states,
districts, or territories (up to three) for exports and imports of
services. This information would be required of all survey respondents
and would allow BEA to produce estimates of the value of exports and
imports of services by U.S. state for the first time.
(2) Add a question on employment size class. This information would
be required of all survey respondents to aid in identifying the number
of small businesses reporting on the survey, and the volume of services
trade data reported by small businesses.
[[Page 46140]]
(3) Better distinguish between life insurance and nonlife insurance
for exports of direct insurance by separately collecting a percentage
break out of the U.S. Reporter's global totals for premiums and losses
on direct insurance exports for the categories of insurance with a
savings component, freight, property and casualty, and other. This
detail would be required from all reporters and collection would result
in multiple methodological improvements, notably, enabling BEA to
publish direct insurance broken down as suggested by international
guidelines.
(4) Directly collect premium supplements for exports and use
reported data to improve the estimation of premium supplements for
imports. Only those reporters subject to filing country and affiliation
detail on the mandatory schedules (i.e., those reporters exceeding $2
million in combined transactions, based on absolute value) will be
required to respond to this question.
BEA also plans to discontinue the collection of the question
requesting the U.S. Reporter's organization type and would no longer
collect information on reinsurance reserve transfers (Schedule C) and
catastrophic losses (Schedule D). These items are no longer necessary
given other modifications made to the survey.
BEA estimates there will be minimal impact to the reporting burden
because the burden associated with the additional data items required
on the survey should not require an extensive search within company
records, and burden associated with these new items will be offset by
burden reductions from deleted survey items. Proposals one and two
should not affect burden because BEA believes these data to be readily
available in reporter records, or can be provided by many respondents
based on recall, without the need to search existing records.
Additionally, proposal three is a minor modification to data already
collected on the 2018 BE-140 benchmark survey. Survey respondents who
provided a breakout of direct insurance into life, freight, and other
in 2018 will now be required to report transactions in insurance with a
savings component, freight, property and casualty, and other. The
additional category should have minimal impact on reporters, because,
in 2018 reporters had to separately identify these transactions in
order to classify them among the three categories used on the previous
benchmark survey. BEA estimates there will be a 0.5 hour increase in
reporting burden associated with the collection of detail on premium
supplements, proposal four. However, this additional data will only be
required of respondents required to report country and affiliation
detail on the mandatory schedules, whom BEA believes will also see a
comparable reduction in burden associated with the elimination of
Schedules C and D from the survey.
Therefore, although there are some expected increases in burden,
BEA believes these increases to be negligible and primarily offset by a
reduction in burden from data collected in 2018 which will no longer be
collected on the 2023 survey. BEA believes the additional data is
readily available in existing company accounting records, and therefore
average burden for completing the survey will continue to be 5 hours
per response. The language in the instructions and definitions will be
reviewed and adjusted as necessary to clarify survey requirements.
II. Method of Collection
BEA will contact potential respondents by mail in January of 2024
to announce the upcoming benchmark survey. Respondents would then be
notified in May 2024 that a completed BE-140 form is due July 31, 2024.
Reports would be required from each U.S. person that had transactions
in the covered insurance services with foreign persons during 2023. A
response is required from persons subject to the reporting requirements
of the BE-140 Benchmark Survey of Insurance Transactions by U.S.
Insurance Companies with Foreign Persons, whether or not they are
contacted by BEA.
BEA offers its electronic filing option, the eFile system, for use
in reporting on Form BE-140. For more information about eFile, go to
<a href="http://www.bea.gov/efile">www.bea.gov/efile</a>. In addition, BEA posts all its survey forms and
reporting instructions on its website, <a href="http://www.bea.gov/ssb">www.bea.gov/ssb</a>. These may be
downloaded, completed, printed, and submitted via fax or mail.
III. Data
OMB Control Number: 0608-0073.
Form Number(s): BE-140.
Type of Review: Regular submission.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 1,300 annually (1,000 reporting
mandatory data and 300 that would file exemption claims or voluntary
responses).
Estimated Time per Response: 9 hours is the average for the 600
respondents filing data by country and affiliation; 2 hours for the 400
respondents filing data by transaction type only, and 1 hour for those
filing an exemption claim or other response. Hours may vary
considerably among respondents because of differences in company size
and complexity.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 6,500.
Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: $0.
Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
Legal Authority: International Investment and Trade in Services
Survey Act (Pub. L. 94-472, 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108, as amended).
IV. Request for Comments
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the Agency, including whether the information will have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information;
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on respondents, including through the use of
automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of
public record. We will include or summarize each comment in our request
to OMB to approve this ICR. Before including your address, phone
number, email address, or other personal identifying information in
your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including
your personal identifying information--may be made publicly available
at any time. While you may ask us in your comment to withhold your
personal identifying information from public review, we cannot
guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary of
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2023-15276 Filed 7-18-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-06-P
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