SUPPORTING STATEMENT
FOR THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION FOR
“INVESTOR FORM”
Justification
1. Information Collection Necessity
Each year the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) receives several thousand contacts from investors who have complaints or questions on a wide range of investment-related issues. To make it easier for the public to contact the agency electronically, the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (“OIEA”) created an electronic form (the Investor Form) that provides drop down options to choose from in order to categorize the investor’s complaint or question, and may also provide the investor with automated information about their issue. OIEA receives approximately 30,000 contacts each year through the Investor Form. Investors can access the Investor Form through the consolidated Investor Complaint and Question Webpage.
The dual purpose of the Investor Form is to make it easier for the public to contact the agency with complaints, questions, tips, or other feedback and to streamline the workflow of SEC staff that record, process, and respond to investor contacts. Investors who submit complaints, ask questions, or provide tips do so voluntarily. Although the Investor Form provides a structured format for incoming investor correspondence, the SEC does not require that investors use any particular form or format when contacting the agency. Investors who choose not to use the Investor Form will receive the same level of service as those who do.
2. Information Collection Purpose
The SEC uses the information that investors supply on the Investor Form: to review and process the contact (which may, in turn, involve responding to questions, processing complaints, or, as appropriate, initiating enforcement referrals); to maintain a record of contacts; to track the volume of investor complaints; and to analyze trends. The Investor Form also allows investors to opt-in to receive email alerts about rulemaking and Enforcement actions related to the issue(s) about which the investor is writing.
The Investor Form asks investors to provide information concerning, among other things, their names, how they can be reached, the names of the individuals or entities involved, the nature of their complaint or tip, what documents they can provide, and what, if any, actions they have taken. Investors do not have to provide their names or other identifying information to submit a tip or complaint.
3. Consideration Given to Information Technology
The Investor Form automatically routes the investor’s complaint or question to OIEA’s contact management system. Many questions on the Investor Form appear in multiple-choice format or employ drop-down boxes so that the investor can provide information by simply checking a box or selecting a pre-loaded option. Contacts not only receive an immediate, online confirmation of their submissions, but they also receive custom responses from the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, which includes an automatically generated file number.
4. Duplication of Information
There is no other collection instrument available to collect the information necessary to meet the purposes described in item 2 above.
5. Reducing the Burden on Small Businesses
The burden of compliance with the information collection requirement does not impact small businesses or other small entities.
6. Consequences of Not Requiring Collection
Investor use of the Investor Form is voluntary. Moreover, the SEC does not require investors to submit complaints, questions, tips, or other feedback. Absent the form, investors still have several ways to contact the agency, including telephone, facsimile, letters, and e-mail.
7. Inconsistencies with Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.8(d)
There are no special circumstances. This collection is consistent with the guidelines in
5 CFR 1320.8(d).
8. Consultations Outside the Agency
We have published the required Federal Register Notice allowing public comment. The 60 day notice was published [ENTER DATE], [ENTER FR NUMBER] No comments were received.
9. Payment or Gift to Respondents
There are no such gifts or payments to respondents.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality
A link to the agency’s privacy web site is provided within the form’s web page.
11. Sensitive Questions
No information of a sensitive nature, including social security numbers, will be required under this collection of information.
The information collection collects basic Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that may include, name, home address, telephone number, and email. The agency has determined that the information collection constitutes a system of record for purposes of the Privacy Act and is covered under System of Records Notice (SORN) SEC-65. The SEC-65 SORN, published on September 18, 2011, is provided as a supplemental document and is also available at https://www.sec.gov/privacy. A Privacy Act Statement is applicable for the information collection and is available on the form.
In accordance with Section 208 of the E-Government Act of 2002, the agency has conducted a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) of the Investor Response Information System (IRIS), in connection with this collection of information. The IRIS PIA, published on January 20, 2010, is provided as a supplemental document and is also available at https://www.sec.gov/privacy.
12. Time Burden Estimate
Based on the staff’s review of the Investor Form’s use in recent years, we anticipate that the number of contacts per year has increased from approximately 20,000 contacts per year to approximately 30,000 contacts per year, so the new burden is based on 30,000 users annually. The estimated time of 15 minutes to complete the Investor Form remains the same.
The staff of the SEC estimates that the total reporting burden for using the Investor Form is 7,500 hours. This calculation is based on the number of investors who use the form each year and the estimated time it takes to complete the form: 30,000 respondents x 15 minutes = 7,500 burden hours.
13. Total Annual Cost Burden
There is no fee or cost to use the Investor Form.
14. Cost to Federal Government
Costs are minimal to maintain the electronic form.
15. Changes in Burden
As noted above, based on the staff’s review of the Investor Form’s use in recent years, we anticipate that the number of contacts per year has increased from approximately 20,000 contacts per year to approximately 30,000 contacts per year, so the new burden is based on 30,000 users annually. The estimated time of 15 minutes to complete the Investor Form remains the same. As a result of the increased number of contacts per year, the total reporting burden has increased from 5,000 hours (20,000 respondents x 15 minutes) to 7,500 hours (30,000 respondents x 15 minutes). This change represents a 2,500 hour increase in the total reporting burden.
16. Information Collection Planned for Statistical Purposes
Not applicable. The information collected is not used for tabulation, statistical analysis or publication.
17. Approval to Omit OMB Expiration Date
Not applicable. The OMB expiration date and control number will be displayed.
18. Exceptions to Certification Statement
This collection complies with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 0000-00-00 |