April 30, 2007

Board Issues Electronic Disclosure Proposals; Requests Comments 
In a press release, the Board requested comments on proposed amendments to five consumer financial services and fair lending regulations to clarify the requirements for providing consumer disclosures in electronic form. The proposals are updates of interim rules for Regulations B, E, M, Z, and DD that the Fed proposed in 2001, but later abandoned. They also would put into effect certain provisions of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which mandates certain disclosures for online credit card solicitations. The Reg. B proposal would allow application-related disclosures to be provided online if the customer accessed the application through an electronic means such as a Web site. However, for other disclosures, such as appraisal reports, the proposal would require gaining an applicant's consent for electronic disclosures. The proposals were issued for 60-day comment periods.

Latest Beige Book Available 
In the latest Beige Book, most Federal Reserve Districts noted only modest or moderate expansions in economic activity since the previous report; however, two — New York and Minneapolis — reported steady and firm growth, respectively, and Dallas characterized growth as moderately strong. Details, including individual Reserve Bank summaries, are available in the full report.