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2015 Chief FOIA Officer Report

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Charles Yi, General Counsel and Chief FOIA Officer

March 2014 - March 2015

Section I: Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness

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

General's 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. Two agency-wide trainings on the FOIA were held for attorneys and 

paralegals with attorney CLE credits provided. More recently, the FDIC sponsored a 

DOJ OIP training on Exemptions 4 and 5 in which FOIA staff from other federal banking 

agencies also attended. 

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. In addition, employees from six 

of the FDIC’s divisions involved in the processing of most of the FOIA requests received 

by the FDIC attended such training.

3. In the 2014 Chief FOIA Officer Report Guidelines, OIP asked agencies to provide a plan 

for ensuring that core, substantive FOIA training is offered to all agency FOIA 

professionals at least once each year. Please provide the status of your agency’s 

implementation of this plan.

Answer: The FDIC hosted a presentation by OIP on FOIA Exemptions 4 and 5 during 

the reporting period.
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Discretionary Releases:

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

discretionary release? 

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. The FDIC made discretionary disclosures of exempt documents in 

response to Part 309 requests during the reporting period. 

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 FOIA Memoranda. 

Answer: FOIA exemptions that would have covered the information that was released as 

a matter of discretion include Exemptions 2 and 5.

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 contained in internal 

correspondence including staff memoranda to the FDIC’s Board of Directors, operational 

manuals and a personnel directive that could have been withheld under the deliberative 

process privilege. Certain information released in the personnel directive could also have 

been withheld under Exemption 2.

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

explain why. 

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.
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Section II: Steps Taken to Ensure that Your Agency

Has an Effective System in Place for Responding to Requests 

As the Attorney General emphasized in his FOIA Guidelines, “[a]pplication of the proper 

disclosure standard is only one part of ensuring transparency. Open government requires not just 

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 2014, 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 2014 Annual FOIA Report.

Answer: The FDIC took an average of 3.47 days to adjudicate requests for expedited 

processing in Fiscal Year 2014.

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. 

Requester Services:

3. Does your agency notify requesters of the mediation services offered by the Office of 

Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records 

Administration? See OIP Guidance, “Notifying Requesters of the Mediation Services 

Offered by OGIS.” (July 9, 2010)

Answer: No, we have existing internal procedures which obviate the need to advise 

requesters of OGIS mediation services in denial letters or in administrative appeal 

decisions. As indicated on the FDIC’s FOIA website, the FDIC’s Ombudsman has been 

designated as the FDIC’s FOIA Public Liaison and is available to serve as a supervisory 

official to whom a FOIA requester can raise concerns about the service received from the 

FOIA/PA Group. The FDIC also has its own ADR program that is available to 

implement the full spectrum of ADR processes in internal and external conflict 

management.

4. When assessing fees, does your agency provide a breakdown of how FOIA fees were 

calculated and assessed to the FOIA requester? For example, does your agency explain 

the amount of fees attributable to search, review, and duplication? See OIP Guidance, 
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“The Importance of Good Communication with FOIA Requesters 2.0: Improving Both 

the Means and the Content of Requester Communications.” (Nov. 22, 2013)

Answer: Yes. The FDIC customarily provides a breakdown of FOIA fees, assessed in 

accordance with the FDIC’s published fee schedule, to the requesters. Fee estimates and 

invoices, if applicable, are then provided to each requester for search, review and/or

duplication costs.

5. If estimated fees estimates are particularly high, does your agency provide an explanation 

for the estimate to the requester?

Answer: Yes. In such situations, the FDIC will provide a more detailed explanation of 

the various components of the estimate specifying, for example, the number of hours 

anticipated for search time, the cost per hour of search and the level of the staff who will 

conduct the search.

6. 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 and Attorney General 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. Does your agency have a distinct process or system in place to identify 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. The FOIA Group also utilizes 
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its FOIA software to identify records that are of interest to the public by analyzing, for 

example, trends in the nature of requests.

2. Does your process or system involve any collaboration with agency staff outside the 

FOIA office? If so, describe this interaction.

Answer: Yes. The FOIA Group works with personnel in the FDIC division(s) with 

primary authority over records that have been identified as candidates for posting to 

insure that proactive disclosure of such records is appropriate and that exempt 

information that should not be disclosed is protected.

3. Describe your agency’s process or system for identifying “frequently requested” records 

that should be posted online.

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.

4. 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:

Documents considered at FDIC Board of Director’s meetings –

https://www.fdic.gov/news/board/2014/2014-09-03_notice.html

https://www.fdic.gov/news/board/2014/2014-07-15_notice.html

https://www.fdic.gov/news/board/2014/2014-04-08_notice.html

Summary of Deposits (SOD) - https://www2.fdic.gov/sod/

FDIC Consumer News 

Summer 2014 - https://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnsum14/

Spring 2014 - https://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnspr14/

Quarterly Banking Profile - https://www2.fdic.gov/qbp/index.asp

Minority Depository Institution Study 

https://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/quarterly/2014_vol8_3/mdi_study.pdf

Supervisory Insights - Summer 2014 

https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/examinations/supervisory/insights/index.html

Community Banks Remain Resilient Amid Industry Consolidation
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https://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/quarterly/2014_vol8_2/article.pdf

Chief Financial Officer's (CFO) Report to the Board

1st Quarter 2014 - https://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/corporate/cfo_report_1stqtr_14/index.html

4th Quarter 2013 - https://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/corporate/cfo_report_4thqtr_13/

5. 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.

Making Material Posted Online More Useful:

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

more useful 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 

useful to the public.

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

Answer: In addition to posting material discussed in open sessions of the FDIC Board of 

Directors meetings on the FDIC’s website, the meetings themselves may be viewed live 

online and recordings of these sessions are subsequently made available to the public. 

See: 

https://fdic.primetime.mediaplatform.com/#!/channel/1232003497484/Board+Meetings 
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3. Has your agency encountered challenges that make it difficult to post records you 

otherwise would like to post?

Answer: No. The FDIC has not encountered any challenges that make it difficult to post 

records online.

4. If so, please briefly explain what those challenges are.

Answer: N/A.

Other Initiatives:

5. Did your agency successfully post all four quarterly reports for Fiscal Year 2014?

Answer: Yes. All four of the FDIC’s quarterly FOIA reports for Fiscal Year 2014 were 

successfully posted online.

6. 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 2015.

Answer: N/A.

7. 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.

8. If your agency does not communicate electronically with requests 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.

Section V: Steps Taken to Improve Timeliness in

Responding to Requests and Reducing Backlogs 

The President and the Attorney General have emphasized the importance of improving 

timeliness in responding to requests. This section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report addresses 
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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. For the figures required in this Section, please use the 

numbers contained in the specified sections of your agency’s 2014 Annual FOIA Report and, 

when applicable, your agency’s 2013 Annual FOIA Report.

 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 2014, 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 2014 was 

6.48 days.

3. Please provide the percentage of requests processed by your agency in Fiscal Year 2014 

that were placed in your simple track.

Answer: 72% of the requests processed by the FDIC in Fiscal Year 2014 were simple 

requests.

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 2013 and Fiscal Year 2014 when completing this section of your Chief FOIA 

Officer Report.

Backlogged Requests:

5. If your agency had a backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2014, did that 

backlog decrease as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2013?
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Answer: The FDIC had no backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2013 or at the 

close of Fiscal Year 2014.

6. 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 2014. 

If your agency did not receive any requests in Fiscal Year 2014 and/or has no request 

backlog, please answer with “N/A.”

Answer: N/A.

Backlogged Appeals:

7. If your agency had a backlog of appeals at the close of Fiscal Year 2014, did that backlog 

decrease as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2013?

Answer: The FDIC had no backlog of appeals at the close of Fiscal Year 2013 or at the 

close of Fiscal Year 2014.

8. 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 2014. 

If your agency did not receive any appeals in Fiscal Year 2014 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 2013 and Fiscal Year 2014 when completing this 

section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report.

Ten Oldest Requests:

9. In Fiscal Year 2014, did your agency close the ten oldest requests that were reported 

pending in your Fiscal Year 2013 Annual FOIA Report?

Answer: Yes. All ten of the FDIC’s oldest requests from Fiscal Year 2013 were closed 

during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2014.

10. 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 2013 Annual FOIA 

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

Answer: N/A
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11. 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:

12. In Fiscal Year 2014, did your agency close the ten oldest appeals that were reported 

pending in your Fiscal Year 2013 Annual FOIA Report?

Answer: The FDIC ended Fiscal Year 2013 with two pending appeals. Both appeals 

were closed in October 2013.

13. 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 2013 Annual 

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

Answer: N/A.

Ten Oldest Consultations:

14. In Fiscal Year 2014, did your agency close the ten oldest consultations that were reported 

pending in your Fiscal Year 2013 Annual FOIA Report?

Answer: The FDIC had only one pending consultation at the end of Fiscal Year 2013. 

This consultation was closed in October 2013.

15. 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 2013 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:

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

and consultations from Fiscal Year 2013.

Answer: N/A.

17. 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 
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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.

18. 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 2015.

Answer: N/A.

Use of FOIA’s Law Enforcement “Exclusions”

In order to increase transparency regarding the use of the FOIA’s statutory law enforcement 

exclusions, which authorize agencies under certain exceptional circumstances to “treat the 

records as not subject to the requirements of [the FOIA],” 5 U.S.C. § 552(c)(1), (2), (3), please 

answer the following questions:

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

Year 2014? 

Answer: No. The FDIC did not invoke a statutory exclusion during Fiscal Year 2014.

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

Answer: N/A.