View Information Collection Request (ICR) Package

OMB Control No: 2590-0015	ICR Reference No: 202007-2590-002
Status: Historical Active	Previous ICR Reference No: 201603-2590-001
Agency/Subagency: FHFA	Agency Tracking No: 2020-N-14
Title: American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB)
Type of Information Collection: Reinstatement without change of a previously approved collection	Common Form ICR: No
Type of Review Request: Emergency	Approval Requested By: 09/21/2020
OIRA Conclusion Action: Approved without change	Conclusion Date: 09/09/2020
Retrieve Notice of Action (NOA)	Date Received in OIRA: 09/04/2020
Terms of Clearance:

	Inventory as of this Action	Requested	Previously Approved
Expiration Date	03/31/2021	6 Months From Approved
Responses	10,024	0	0
Time Burden (Hours)	5,024	0	0
Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0	0

Abstract: FHFA is seeking OMB clearance for a previously approved collection of information known as the "American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers" (ASMB). The ASMB is a periodic voluntary survey of individuals who currently have a first mortgage loan secured by single-family residential property. It solicits information on borrowers’ experience with maintaining their existing mortgages, including their experience maintaining mortgages under financial stress, their experience in soliciting financial assistance, their success in accessing federally-sponsored programs designed to assist them, and, where applicable, any challenges they may have had in terminating a mortgage loan.

Emergency Justfication: The PRA clearance for the ASMB expired on July 31, 2019. In anticipation of renewing the clearance FHFA published a 60-day Notice and request for comments in the Federal Register on May 29, 2019. See 84 FR 24783 (May 29, 2019). After publication of the 60-day Notice, FHFA and CFPB (jointly, “the agencies”) decided not to conduct the survey in 2019 (it had been conducted annually from 2016-2018) and, instead, to wait until the fall of 2020 to conduct the next survey wave. In light of that decision, FHFA decided to allow the PRA clearance for the ASMB to expire and to continue with the clearance process in early 2020. As FHFA was preparing to publish the 30-day PRA Notice and to submit the ICR in the Spring of 2020, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s mortgage markets and overall economy was becoming more and more evident. As a result, the agencies decided to revise the 2020 survey questionnaire to add several questions specifically relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on mortgage borrowers. The addition of those questions has made the survey questionnaire materially different from the version that was published with the 60-day Notice in May 2019 and OMB has informed FHFA that it cannot move forward with the normal clearance process without first publishing a new 60-day Notice for the revised questionnaire. FHFA and CFPB are actively engaged in developing policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in support of the recently-enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136 (2020), which addresses various ramifications of the pandemic, including its effects on the residential mortgage market. In order to engage in the timely and evidenced-based policymaking that is required in response to the pandemic, it is critical for both agencies to have access to the survey data that will be solicited through the revised questionnaire as quickly as possible. If FHFA were to restart the normal PRA clearance process from the beginning, it is unlikely that the Agency will have received OMB approval for the revised collection in time to send out the survey in October or November of 2020 as was originally planned and as is needed to provide the critical data in a timely fashion.

Authorizing Statute(s): US Code: 12 USC 4544(c)

Citations for New Statutory Requirements: None

Associated Rulemaking Information
RIN:	Stage of Rulemaking:	Federal Register Citation:	Date:
	Not associated with rulemaking

Federal Register Notices & Comments
30-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	85 FR 46104	07/31/2020
Did the Agency receive public comments on this ICR? No

Number of Information Collection (IC) in this ICR: 2

IC Title	Form No.	Form Name
ASMB - Conducting the Survey
ASMB - Pre-Testing the Survey Materials through Focus Groups

ICR Summary of Burden

	Total Approved	Change Due to Potential Violation of the PRA
Annual Number of Responses	10,024	10,024
Annual Time Burden (Hours)	5,024	5,024
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0

Burden increases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Increase Due to:

Burden decreases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Reduction Due to:

Short Statement:

Annual Cost to Federal Government: $413,360

Does this IC contain surveys, censuses, or employ statistical methods? Yes Part B of Supporting Statement

Does this ICR request any personally identifiable information (see OMB Circular No. A-130 for an explanation of this term)? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. No

Does this ICR include a form that requires a Privacy Act Statement (see 5 U.S.C. §552a(e)(3))? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. Yes

Is this ICR related to the Affordable Care Act [Pub. L. 111-148 & 111-152]? No

Is this ICR related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, [Pub. L. 111-203]? No

Is this ICR related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)? No

Is this ICR related to the Pandemic Response? Yes

Agency Contact: Eric Raudenbush 202 414-6421 eric.raudenbush@fhfa.gov

View ICR - OIRA Conclusion