FR28c_20200813_omb

Supporting Statement for the
Pre-Hire Conflict of Interest Screening Form
(FR 28c; OMB No. 7100-NEW)
Summary
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), under authority
delegated from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has implemented a new
information collection, the Pre-Hire Conflict of Interest Screening Form (FR 28c; OMB No.
7100-NEW). The FR 28c form collects information from external applicants applying to the
Board1 regarding certain financial interests or business relationships held by the applicant and by
their immediate family members, as well as the external applicant’s involvement with certain
outside organizations to determine whether a conflict of interest may exist, which could impact
the applicant’s ability to fulfill the responsibilities associated with the position for which they
have applied.
The estimated total annual burden for the FR 28c is 1,150 hours. The form and
instructions are available on the Board’s public website at
https://www.federalreserve.gov/careers-addinfo.htm.
Background and Justification
The Board implemented the FR 28c form to collect information regarding a prospective
external candidate’s potential conflicts of interest after the external applicant has been selected to
interview at the Board, but before an offer of employment has been extended. For example,
depending upon the position for which the external applicant has applied, potential conflicts of
interest could include, but may not be limited to, financial interests of the applicant, their spouse,
or their minor child(ren) in certain companies or entities, close relatives (i.e., spouse, child,
parent, or sibling) who are employed at certain companies or entities, and certain outside
employment arrangements or positions held by the applicant that they plan to continue to hold if
hired by the Board (both compensated and uncompensated positions). The information disclosed
on the FR 28c form allows the Board’s Ethics staff to ensure proper vetting of potential conflicts
of interest. The FR 28 general employment application form2 will continue to ask basic
information about certain potential conflicts of interest, but the FR 28c form asks for more
detailed information to make sure that potential conflicts of interest are more fully vetted and
addressed before the applicant has begun work as an employee of the Board. In addition, the
FR 28c form instructs the applicant to provide conflict of interest information on the FR 28c
form to the extent such information was “not previously described on your employment
application (FR 28), which is hereby incorporated by reference.” Accordingly, the information

1

The FR 28c form will only be given to external applicants for full- or part-time employment or internships
(collectively, external applicants or applicants) if they have been selected for an interview.
2
The FR 28 form is the Board’s general employment application, which is a distinct information collection that
undergoes a separate review process under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (OMB No. 7100-0181). The FR 28
general employment application is not being renewed or revised in connection with this PRA review for the FR 28c
form.

being collected on the FR 28c form is not be duplicative of information obtained from other
sources.
Description of Information Collection
If an external applicant is selected for an interview, the applicant would receive an email
requesting that they fill out and submit the FR 28c form. The applicant can fill out the form
electronically and email it to the Board, or print it, fill it out and bring it with them to their
interview. The form collects information in the following areas:
1. Financial Interests. The FR 28c form asks the applicant, to the best of their
knowledge, to provide information regarding the financial interest held by the applicant, the
applicant’s spouse, and any minor child(ren) in a bank, bank holding company, or savings and
loan holding company; a consulting firm or law firm that advises financial institutions; an
economic forecasting firm or other economic consulting firm; or a vendor or contractor that the
applicant knows work with the Federal Reserve. In addition, similar to the FR 28 general
employment application form, this section of the FR 28c form also asks the applicant to list any
debt or equity interests held in a mutual fund or exchange traded fund with a policy of
concentrating in the financial sector.
2. Relatives in Related Businesses. The FR 28c form asks if the applicant’s spouse,
child, parent, or sibling works as an employee, officer, director, or trustee for a bank, bank
holding company, or savings and loan holding company (or the parent or subsidiaries of such
institutions); a consulting firm or law firm that advises financial institutions; an economic
forecasting firm or other economic consulting firm; or a vendor or contractor that the applicant
knows works with the Federal Reserve. If so, the FR 28c form would collect information on the
name of the company/entity, the family member’s position at the company/entity, and their
relationship to the applicant. The FR 28c form requests more detailed information than the
information requested on the FR 28 general employment application form.
3. Outside Positions. The FR 28c form asks the applicant to describe their outside
businesses, outside employment, and uncompensated positions, which the applicant plans to
continue if they become a Board employee. This information is not currently collected on the
FR 28 general employment application form.
4. Other Potential Conflicts. The FR 28c form asks if there are any other situations,
arrangements, or investments that the applicant believes could pose a conflict of interest based
on the duties of the position for which they are applying.
Respondent Panel
Individuals who have been selected for an interview during the hiring process.
Time Schedule for Information Collection
The conflict of interest form is completed by applicants for employment after being asked

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to interview at the Board, or shortly after their interview, as needed.
Public Availability of Data
No data related to this information collection would be made available to the public.
Legal Status
The FR 28c is authorized by section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. § 244)
which provides that the Board’s determination with respect to the “employment, compensation,
leave, and expenses [of its members and employees] shall be governed solely by the provisions
of this chapter and rules and regulations of the Board not inconsistent therewith.” In addition,
under regulations promulgated by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
§ 7301,3 each executive agency’s designated ethics officer is required to provide “advice and
counseling to prospective ... employees regarding government ethics laws and regulations” and
to “maintain records of agency ethics program activities” (5 CFR 2638.104(c)(2) and (4)).
Providing the information collected on the FR 28c is required in order to obtain the benefit of
Board employment.
Generally, information provided on the FR 28c may be kept confidential from the public
under exemption 6 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which protects information in
“personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6)). In addition, financial
information collected on the form (such as confidential details about the amount of shares an
applicant, their spouse, or minor child owns in a bank) may be withheld under exemption 4 of
the FOIA, which protects “financial information obtained from a person [that is] privileged and
confidential” (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4)).
The information collected on the FR 28c form will be maintained in a “system of
records” within the meaning of the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. § 552a(a)(5)), and a Privacy Act
statement will accompany this information collection. Disclosures of information collected on
the FR 28c, including confidential information withheld from the public under a FOIA
exemption, may be made by the Board to third parties in accordance with the Privacy Act’s
“routine use” disclosure provision (5 U.S.C. §§ 552a(a)(7) and (b)(3)), which permits the
disclosure of a record for a purpose that is compatible with the purpose for which the record was
collected. The routine uses that would permit the disclosure of this information collection are
listed in the specific system of records notices (SORNs) that apply to this information collection,
which are found in (1) the SORN for BGFRS-1, FRB-Recruiting and Placement Records, located
here: https://www.federalreserve.gov/files/BGFRS-1-recruiting-and-placement-records.pdf and
(2) the SORN for BGFRS-41, FRB-Ethics Program Records, located here:
3

See Executive Order 12674, 54 FR 14925, 15159, (April 12, 1989), as modified by Executive Order 12731, 55 FR
42345, 42547 (October 19, 1990) (authorizing the OGE, in consultation with the Department of Justice and the
Office of Personnel Management, to issue “regulations that establish a single, comprehensive, and clear set of
executive-branch standards of conduct”). If hired by the Board, under 5 U.S.C. § 7301, an employee of the Board is
therefore subject to the OGE’s executive branch-wide financial disclosure regulations at 5 CFR part 2634, as well as
the OGE’s executive branch-wide standards of ethical conduct at 5 CFR part 2635, and the Board’s supplemental
ethics regulations that were issued with the concurrence of the OGE at 5 CFR part 6801. See also 12 CFR 264.101.

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https://www.federalreserve.gov/files/BGFRS-41-FRB-Ethics-Program-Records.pdf. Specifically,
these two SORNs provide that the information may be disclosed outside the Board in accordance
with general routine uses A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J (see “General Routine Uses of Board
Systems of Records” available at https://www.federalreserve.gov/files/SORN-page-generalroutine-uses-of-board-systems-of-records.pdf). The SORN for BGFRS-1 also provides that all or
part of the record may be disclosed outside of the Board in order to disclose information to any
source from which additional information is requested (to the extent necessary to identify the
individual, inform the source of the purpose(s) of the request, and identify the type of
information requested), when necessary to obtain information relevant to a Board decision to hire
or retain an employee, issue a security clearance, conduct a security or suitability investigation of
an individual, classify jobs, let a contract, or issue a license, grant or other benefit.
Consultation Outside the Agency
There has been no consultation outside the Federal Reserve System.
Public Comments
On January 16, 2020, the Board published an initial notice in the Federal Register
(85 FR 2741) requesting public comment for 60 days on the implementation of the FR 28c. The
comment period for this notice expired on March 16, 2020. The Board did not receive any
comments. On June 29, 2020, the Board published a final notice in the Federal Register
(85 FR 38893).
Estimate of Respondent Burden
As shown in the table below, the estimated total annual burden for the FR 28c is 1,150
hours. These reporting requirements represents less than 1 percent of the Board’s total paperwork
burden.

FR 28c

Estimated
number of
respondents4
2,300

Estimated
Estimated
Annual
average hours annual burden
frequency
per response
hours
1
0.5
1,150

The estimated total annual cost to the public for this collection of information is
$31,050.5

4

Of these respondents, none are considered small entities as defined by the Small Business Administration (i.e.,
entities with less than $600 million in total assets), https://www.sba.gov/document/support--table-size-standards.
5
The average consumer cost of $27 is estimated using data from the BLS Economic News Release (USDL-20-0300)
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cewqtr_02202020.htm.

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Sensitive Questions
This collection of information contains no questions of a sensitive nature, as defined by
OMB guidelines.6
Estimate of Cost to the Federal Reserve System
The estimated cost to the Federal Reserve System for collecting and processing this
information is negligible.

6

For Privacy Act and System of Records information, please refer to the Legal Status section of this document.

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