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2016 Chief FOIA Officer Report

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Charles Yi, General Counsel and Chief FOIA Officer

March 2015 - March 2016

Section I: Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness

The guiding principle underlying the President's FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney 

General's 2009 FOIA Guidelines is the presumption of openness. 

Please answer the following questions in order to describe the steps your agency has taken to 

ensure that the presumption of openness is being applied to all decisions involving the FOIA. 

You may also include any additional information that illustrates how your agency is working to 

apply the presumption of openness.

FOIA Training:

1. Did your FOIA professionals or the personnel at your agency who have FOIA 

responsibilities attend any FOIA training or conference during the reporting period such 

as that provided by the Department of Justice?

Answer: Yes. Members of the the FDIC’s FOIA/Privacy Act Group attended the 

American Society of Access Professionals (ASAP) 8th National Training Conference 

and/or a West LegalEd Center webinar entitled FOIA 101: Understanding the Freedom 

of Information Act.

2. Provide an estimate of the percentage of your FOIA professionals and staff with FOIA 

responsibilities who attended substantive FOIA trainings during this reporting period. 

Answer: 100% of the FDIC’s FOIA/Privacy Act Group professionals and staff attended 

substantive FOIA training during the reporting period. 

3. OIP has directed agencies to "take steps to ensure that all of their FOIA professionals

attend substantive FOIA training at least once throughout the year." If your response to 

the previous question is that less than 80% of your FOIA professionals attended training, 

please explain your agency’s plan to ensure that all FOIA professionals receive or attend 

substantive FOIA training during the next reporting year.

Answer: N/A.

Discretionary Releases:

4. Does your agency have a distinct process or system in place to review records for 

discretionary release? 
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Answer: Yes. The FDIC makes discretionary disclosures of exempt records pursuant to 

12 C.F.R. § 309.6 (“Part 309”), which provides that under appropriate circumstances, 

discretionary disclosures may be authorized by the Director of the FDIC division having 

primary authority over the exempt records in question, or by the Chairman, the Board of 

Directors, the General Counsel, or their designees.

5. During the reporting period, did your agency make any discretionary releases of 

information? 

Answer: Yes.

6. What exemption(s) would have covered the material released as a matter of discretion? 

For a discussion of the exemptions that allow for discretionary releases, please see OIP’s 

guidance on implementing the President’s and Attorney General’s 2009 FOIA 

Memoranda. 

Answer: FOIA Exemption 2 covered the information that was released as a matter of 

discretion during the reporting year. 

7. Provide a narrative description, as well as some specific examples, of the types of 

information that your agency released as a matter of discretion during the reporting year. 

Answer: The FDIC made discretionary releases of information concerning personnel 

retention agreements that could have been withheld under Exemption 2.

8. If your agency was not able to make any discretionary releases of information, please 

explain why. For example, you should note here if your agency did not have an 

opportunity to make discretionary disclosures because you provided full releases in 

response to all requests or the only exemptions that were applied were those that do not 

lend themselves to discretionary release (i.e. Exemptions 1, 3, 4, 6, 7A, 7B, 7C, 7F).

Answer: N/A.

Other Initiatives:

9. If there are any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to ensure that the

presumption of openness is being applied, please describe them here.

Answer: N/A.

Section II: Steps Taken to Ensure that Your Agency

Has an Effective System in Place for Responding to Requests 

The Attorney General’s 2009 FOIA Guidelines emphasized that “[a]pplication of the proper 

disclosure standard is only one part of ensuring transparency. Open government requires not just 
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a presumption of disclosure, but also an effective system for responding to FOIA requests.” It is 

essential that agencies effectively manage their FOIA program.

 Please answer the following questions to describe the steps your agency has taken to ensure 

that your management of your FOIA program is effective and efficient. You should also include 

any additional information that that describes your agency's efforts in this area. 

Processing Procedures:

1. For Fiscal Year 2015, what was the average number of days your agency reported for 

adjudicating requests for expedited processing? Please see Section VIII.A. of your 

agency's Fiscal Year 2015 Annual FOIA Report.

Answer: The FDIC took an average of 8.49 days to adjudicate requests for expedited 

processing in Fiscal Year 2015.

2. If your agency's average number of days to adjudicate requests for expedited processing 

was above ten calendar days, please describe the steps your agency will take to ensure 

that requests for expedited processing are adjudicated within ten calendar days or less. 

Answer: N/A. 

3. On July 2, 2015, OIP issued new guidance to agencies on the proper procedures to be 

used in the event an agency has a reason to inquire whether a requester is still interested 

in the processing of his or her request. Please confirm here that to the extent your agency 

may have had occasion to send a "still interested" inquiry, it has done so in accordance 

with the new guidelines for doing so, including affording requesters thirty working days 

to respond.

Answer: The FDIC did not have occasion to send any “still interested” inquiries during 

the reporting period.

Requester Services:

4. Agency FOIA Requester Service Centers and FOIA Public Liaisons serve as the face and 

voice of an agency. In this capacity they provide a very important service for requesters, 

informing them about how the FOIA process works and providing specific details on the 

handling of their individual requests. The FOIA also calls on agency FOIA Requester 

Service Centers and FOIA Public Liaisons to assist requesters in resolving disputes. 

Please explain here any steps your agency has taken to strengthen these services to better 

inform requesters about their requests and to prevent or resolve FOIA disputes.

Answer: The FDIC regularly provides the link to the agency’s Freedom of Information 

Act (FOIA) Service Center in its correspondence with requesters as well as contact 

information for FOIA/Privacy Act Group personnel. The FOIA Service Center includes

dedicated telephone and facsimile numbers that requesters utilize to obtain information or 
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raise concerns about their requests. In addition, every page of the FDIC’s public website

contains a link to the FOIA Service Center. Lastly, the FOIA Service Center provides 

contact information for the FDIC’s Ombudsman who has been designated as the FDIC’s 

FOIA Public Liaison and serves as a supervisory official to whom FOIA requesters can 

also raise concerns about the service received from the FDIC on their requests.

 Other Initiatives:

5. If there are any other steps your agency has undertaken to ensure that your FOIA system 

operates efficiently and effectively, such as conducting self-assessments to find greater 

efficiencies, improving search processes, eliminating redundancy, etc., please describe 

them here.

Answer: The FOIA Group produces regular reports which are used to monitor the 

processing of requests. In addition, the FOIA Group routinely reviews its automated 

FOIA system to ensure the proper processing of requests. Among other things, all FOIA 

correspondence and responsive records are now maintained electronically to improve 

efficiency. Also, FOIA staff is evaluated under a pay-for-performance system with 

regularly scheduled meetings to assess their FOIA skills and to maintain overall quality 

control.

Section III: Steps Taken to Increase Proactive Disclosures

Both the President’s and Attorney General’s FOIA memoranda focused on the need for 

agencies to work proactively to post information online without waiting for individual requests 

to be received. 

Please answer the following questions to describe the steps your agency has taken to increase 

the amount of material that is available on your agency websites. In addition to the questions 

below, you should also describe any additional steps taken by your agency to make and improve 

proactive disclosures of information.

Posting Material:

1. Describe your agency's process or system for identifying "frequently requested" records 

required to be posted online under Subsection (a)(2) of the FOIA. For example, does your 

agency monitor its FOIA logs or is there some other system in place to identify these 

records for posting.

Answer: When a FOIA request is received, the FDIC’s FOIA/Privacy Act Group uses its 

FOIA processing software to identify previous requests for the same or similar records. 

If it is determined that multiple requests for records subject to disclosure under the FOIA 

have been received, the documents are deemed “frequently requested” and are posted on 

the FDIC’s website or otherwise made available for public inspection and copying.
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2. Does your agency have a distinct process or system in place to identify other records for 

proactive disclosure? If so, please describe your agency’s process or system.

Answer: Yes. The FOIA Group routinely reviews FOIA requests to determine whether 

requested records should be posted on the FDIC’s website as a proactive disclosure. The 

FOIA Group also utilizes its FOIA software to identify records that are of interest to the 

public by analyzing, for example, trends in the nature of requests.

3. When making proactive disclosures of records, are your agency's FOIA professionals 

involved in coding the records for Section 508 compliance or otherwise preparing them 

for posting? If so, provide an estimate of how much time is involved for each of your 

FOIA professionals and your agency overall.

Answer: No. The FDIC’s FOIA professionals are not involved in coding records 

proactively disclosed for Section 508 compliance. However, records posted in the 

FDIC’s FOIA Reading Room are Section 508 compliant.

4. Has your agency encountered challenges that make it difficult to post records you 

otherwise would like to post?

Answer: No.

5. If so, please briefly explain those challenges.

Answer: N/A.

6. Provide examples of material that your agency has proactively disclosed during the past 

reporting year, including links to the posted material.

Answer: Information posted on the FDIC’s website during the reporting period includes:

Quarterly Banking Profile:

First Quarter 2015 - https://www5.fdic.gov/qbp/2015mar/qbp.pdf

Second Quarter 2015 - https://www5.fdic.gov/qbp/2015jun/qbp.pdf

Third Quarter 2015 - https://fdic.gov/bank/analytical/qbp/2015sep/qbp.pdf

FDIC Consumer News:

Summer 2015 - https://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnsum15/index.html

Supervisory Insights:

Summer 2015 -

https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/examinations/supervisory/insights/sisum15/SISummer2

015.pdf
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Chief Financial Officer's (CFO) Report to the Board:

Fourth Quarter 2014 -

https://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/corporate/cfo_report_4thqtr_14/

First Quarter 2015 -

https://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/corporate/cfo_report_1stqtr_15/0315_cfo_report.pdf

Documents considered at FDIC Board of Director’s meetings: 

April 21, 2015 - https://www.fdic.gov/news/board/2015/2015-04-21_notice.html

June 16, 2015 - https://www.fdic.gov/news/board/2015/2015-06-16_notice.html

October 22, 2015 - https://www.fdic.gov/news/board/2015/2015-10-22_notice.html

Chairman’s Calendar:

First Quarter 2015 - https://www.fdic.gov/about/freedom/Chairman_1Q-2015.pdf

Second Quarter 2015 - https://www.fdic.gov/about/freedom/Chairman_2Q_2015.pdf

7. Did your agency use any means to publicize or highlight important proactive disclosures 

for public awareness? If yes, please describe those efforts.

Answer: Yes. The FDIC often issues press releases to publicize or highlight releases of 

information. For example, the FDIC issues a press release to inform the public when it 

announces the list of orders of administrative enforcement actions taken against banks 

and individuals during the preceding month. Press releases issued during 2015 are 

available at https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2015/.

Other Initiatives:

8. If there are any other steps your agency has taken to increase proactive disclosures, 

please describe them here.

Answer: The FDIC continues to use its website, social media, webcasts, podcasts, and 

publications to proactively make information available to the general public. An email 

subscription service, RSS feeds, as well as the FDIC pages on Facebook and Twitter 

allow the public to receive many different alerts, including news releases, Financial 

Institution Letters, consumer updates, statistical publications and other information.

Section IV: Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology 

A key component of the President's FOIA Memorandum was the direction to “use modern 

technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government.” In addition 

to using the internet to make proactive disclosures, agencies should also be exploring ways to 

utilize technology in responding to requests. 

Please answer the following questions to describe how your agency is utilizing technology to 

improve its FOIA administration and the public's access to information. You should also include 

any additional information that that describes your agency's efforts in this area.
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Making Material Posted Online More Usable:

1. Beyond posting new material, is your agency taking steps to make the posted information 

more usable to the public, especially to the community of individuals who regularly 

access your agency’s website?

Answer: Yes. The FDIC has taken steps to make information posted on its website more 

usable to the public.

2. If yes, please provide examples of such improvements.

Answer: The FDIC continues to utilize YouTube to make information available to the 

public. For example, during the reporting period it posted several videos on YouTube 

that were produced in conjunction with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to help 

teachers educate children to make smart financial decisions.

Other Initiatives:

3. Did your agency successfully post all four quarterly reports for Fiscal Year 2015?

Answer: Yes. All four of the FDIC’s quarterly FOIA reports for Fiscal Year 2015 were 

successfully posted online.

4. If your agency did not successfully post all quarterly reports, with information appearing 

on FOIA.gov, please explain why and provide your agency’s plan for ensuring that such 

reporting is successful in Fiscal Year 2016.

Answer: N/A.

5. Do your agency's FOIA professionals use e-mail or other electronic means to 

communicate with requesters whenever feasible? See OIP Guidance, “The Importance of 

Good Communication with FOIA Requesters 2.0: Improving Both the Means and the 

Content of Requester Communications.” (Nov. 22, 2013) If yes, what are the different 

types of electronic means are utilized by your agency to communicate with requesters? 

Answer: Yes. The FDIC’s preferred method of communication with requesters is e-mail. 

However, the FDIC can also communicate online with those requesters who submit their 

requests electronically through the FDIC’s FOIA public access web portal.

6. If your agency does not communicate electronically with requesters as a default, are there 

any limitations or restrictions for the use of such means? If yes, does your agency inform 

requesters about such limitations? See id. 

Answer: N/A.
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Section V: Steps Taken to Improve Timeliness in

Responding to Requests and Reducing Backlogs 

The President’s FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney General’s 2009 FOIA Guidelines have 

emphasized the importance of improving timeliness in responding to requests. This section of 

your Chief FOIA Officer Report addresses both time limits and backlog reduction. Backlog 

reduction is measured both in terms of numbers of backlogged requests or appeals and by 

looking at whether agencies closed their ten oldest requests, appeals, and consultations. 

 Simple Track: Section VII.A of your agency’s Annual FOIA Report, entitled “FOIA 

Requests – Response Time for All Processed Requests,” includes figures that show your 

agency's average response times for processed requests. For agencies utilizing a multi-track 

system to process requests, there is a category for “simple” requests, which are those requests 

that are placed in the agency’s fastest (non-expedited) track, based on the low volume and/or 

simplicity of the records requested.

1. Does your agency utilize a separate track for simple requests?

Answer: Yes.

2. If so, for your agency overall in Fiscal Year 2015, was the average number of days to 

process simple requests twenty working days or fewer?

Answer: The average number of days to process simple requests in Fiscal Year 2015 was 

19.78 days.

3. Please provide the percentage of requests processed by your agency in Fiscal Year 2015

that were placed in your simple track.

Answer: 54% of the requests processed by the FDIC in Fiscal Year 2015 were simple 

requests. (329 of 606)

4. If your agency does not track simple requests separately, was the average number of days 

to process all non-expedited requests twenty working days or fewer?

Answer: N/A.

 Backlogs: Section XII.A of your agency’s Annual FOIA Report, entitled “Backlogs of FOIA 

Requests and Administrative Appeals” shows the numbers of any backlogged requests or appeals 

from the fiscal year. You should refer to these numbers from your Annual FOIA Reports for 

both Fiscal Year 2014 and Fiscal Year 2015 when completing this section of your Chief FOIA 

Officer Report.
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BACKLOGGED REQUESTS

5. If your agency had a backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2015, did that 

backlog decrease as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2014?

Answer: The FDIC had no backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2014. The 

backlog reported for Fiscal Year 2015 was 13 requests.

6. If not, explain why and describe the causes that contributed to your agency not being able 

to reduce its backlog. When doing so, please also indicate if any of the following were 

contributing factors:

•An increase in the number of incoming requests.

•A loss of staff.

•An increase in the complexity of the requests received. If possible, please 

provide examples or briefly describe the types of complex requests contributing to 

your backlog increase.

•Any other reasons – please briefly describe or provide examples when possible.

Answer: Of the 13 cases reports as backlogged at the end of Fiscal Year 2015, 10 were

complex requests which required substantial time to locate and review responsive 

documents. 

7. If you had a request backlog please report the percentage of requests that make up the 

backlog out of the total number of requests received by your agency in Fiscal Year 2015. 

Answer: Backlogged requests made up 2% of the total number of requests received by 

the FDIC in Fiscal Year 2015. (13 of 630)

BACKLOGGED APPEALS

8. If your agency had a backlog of appeals at the close of Fiscal Year 2015, did that backlog 

decrease as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2014?

Answer: The FDIC had no backlog of appeals at the end of either Fiscal Year 2014 or

Fiscal Year 2015.

9. If not, explain why and describe the causes that contributed to your agency not being able 

to reduce backlog. When doing so, please also indicate if any of the following were 

contributing factors:

•An increase in the number of incoming appeals.

•A loss of staff.

•An increase in the complexity of the requests received. If possible, please 

provide examples or briefly describe the types of complex requests contributing to 

your backlog increase.
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•Any other reasons – please briefly describe or provide examples when possible.

Answer: N/A.

10. If you had an appeal backlog please report the percentage of appeals that make up the 

backlog out of the total number of appeals received by your agency in Fiscal Year 2015. 

If your agency did not receive any appeals in Fiscal Year 2015 and/or has no appeal 

backlog, please answer with “N/A.”

Answer: N/A.

 Status of Ten Oldest Requests, Appeals, and Consultations: Section VII.E, entitled “Pending 

Requests – Ten Oldest Pending Requests,” Section VI.C.(5), entitled “Ten Oldest Pending 

Administrative Appeals,” and Section XII.C., entitled “Consultations on FOIA Requests – Ten 

Oldest Consultations Received from Other Agencies and Pending at Your Agency,” show the ten 

oldest pending requests, appeals, and consultations. You should refer to these numbers from your 

Annual FOIA Reports for both Fiscal Year 2014 and Fiscal Year 2015 when completing this 

section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report.

TEN OLDEST REQUESTS

11. In Fiscal Year 2015, did your agency close the ten oldest requests that were reported 

pending in your Fiscal Year 2014 Annual FOIA Report?

Answer: Yes. All ten of the FDIC’s oldest requests from Fiscal Year 2014 were closed 

during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2015.

12. If no, please provide the number of these requests your agency was able to close by the 

end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section VII.E of your Fiscal Year 2014 Annual FOIA 

Report. If you had less than ten total oldest requests to close, please indicate that.

Answer: N/A.

13. Of the requests your agency was able to close from your ten oldest, please indicate how 

many of these were closed because the request was withdrawn by the requester. If any 

were closed because the request was withdrawn, did you provide any interim responses 

prior to the withdrawal?

Answer: None of the FDIC’s ten oldest requests were withdrawn by the requester.

TEN OLDEST APPEALS

14. In Fiscal Year 2015, did your agency close the ten oldest appeals that were reported 

pending in your Fiscal Year 2014 Annual FOIA Report?
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Answer: The FDIC had only two appeals pending at the end of Fiscal Year 2014. Both 

were closed during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2015.

15. If no, please provide the number of these appeals your agency was able to close by the 

end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section VII.C.(5) of your Fiscal Year 2014 Annual 

FOIA Report. If you had less than ten total oldest appeals to close, please indicate that. 

Answer: N/A.

TEN OLDEST CONSULTATIONS

16. In Fiscal Year 2015, did your agency close the ten oldest consultations that were reported 

pending in your Fiscal Year 2014 Annual FOIA Report?

Answer: The FDIC had no consultations pending at the end of Fiscal Year 2014.

17. If no, please provide the number of these consultations your agency was able to close by 

the end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section XII.C. of your Fiscal Year 2014 Annual 

FOIA Report. If you had less than ten total oldest consultations to close, please indicate 

that.

Answer: N/A.

Additional Information on Ten Oldest Requests, Appeals, and Consultations & Plans:

18. Briefly explain any obstacles your agency faced in closing its ten oldest requests, appeals, 

and consultations from Fiscal Year 2014.

Answer: N/A. 

19. If your agency was unable to close any of its ten oldest requests because you were 

waiting to hear back from other agencies on consultations you sent, please provide the 

date the request was initially received by your agency, the date when your agency sent 

the consultation, and the date when you last contacted the agency where the consultation 

was pending.

Answer: N/A.

20. If your agency did not close its ten oldest pending requests, appeals, or consultations, 

please provide a plan describing how your agency intends to close those “ten oldest” 

requests, appeals, and consultations during Fiscal Year 2016.

Answer: N/A.
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Use of FOIA’s Law Enforcement “Exclusions”

1. Did your agency invoke a statutory exclusion, 5 U.S.C. § 552(c)(1), (2), (3), during Fiscal 

Year 2015? 

Answer: No. The FDIC did not invoke a statutory exclusion during Fiscal Year 2015.

2. If so, please provide the total number of times exclusions were invoked 

Answer: N/A.