12 C.F.R. Subpart C—Fees for Provision of Information
Title 12 - Banks and Banking
For the purpose of this subpart, the following definitions shall apply: (a) Commercial use request means a request for information that is from or on behalf of an individual or entity seeking information for a use or purpose that furthers the commercial, trade, or profit interests of the requester or on whose behalf the request is being made. To determine whether a request is properly classified as a commercial use request, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation shall determine the purpose for which the documents requested will be used. If the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation has reasonable cause to doubt the purpose specified in the request, for which a requester will use the records sought, or where the purpose is not clear from the request itself, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation shall seek additional clarification before assigning the request to a specified category. (b) Direct costs means those expenditures the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation actually incurs in searching for and reproducing documents to respond to a request for information. In the case of a commercial use request, the term also means those expenditures the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation actually incurs in reviewing documents to respond to the request. The direct cost shall include the salary of the employee performing work (the basic rate of pay for the employee plus 16 percent of that rate to cover benefits) and the cost of operating reproduction equipment. Not included in direct costs are overhead expenses such as costs of space, and heating or lighting the facility in which the records are stored. (c) Educational institution means a preschool, a public or private elementary or secondary school, an institution of undergraduate higher education, an institution of graduate higher education, an institution of professional education, and an institution of vocational education that operates a program or programs of scholarly research. (d) Noncommercial scientific institution refers to an institution that is not operated on a commercial, trade, or profit basis and that is operated solely for the purpose of conducting scientific research, the results of which are not intended to promote any particular product or industry. (e) Representative of the news media means any person actively gathering news for an entity that is organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to the public. The term news means information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public. Examples of news media entities include television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large, and publishers of periodicals (but only in those instances when the periodicals can qualify as disseminators of “news”) who make their products available for purchase or subscription by the general public. These examples are not intended to be all-inclusive. As traditional methods of news delivery evolve (e.g., electronic dissemination of newspapers through telecommunication services), such alternative media would be included in this category. “Freelance” journalists may be regarded as working for a news organization if they can demonstrate a solid basis for expecting publication through that organization even though they are not actually employed by the organization. A publication contract would be the clearest proof that a journalist is working for a news organization, but the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may look to a requester's past publication record to determine whether a journalist is working for a news organization. (f) Reproduce and reproduction mean the process of making a copy of a document necessary to respond to a request for information. Such copies take the form of paper copy, microfilm, audio-visual materials, or machine readable documentation (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), among others. The copy provided shall be in a form that is reasonably usable by requesters. (g) Review means the process of examining documents located in response to a request for information to determine whether any portion of any document located is permitted to be withheld. It also includes processing any documents for disclosure (e.g., doing all that is necessary to prepare the documents for release). The term review does not include the time spent resolving general legal or policy issues regarding the application of exemptions. The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation shall only charge fees for reviewing documents in response to a commercial use request. (h) Search includes all time spent looking for material that is responsive to a request for information, including page-by-page or line-by-line identification of material within documents. Searching for material shall be done in the most efficient and least expensive manner so as to minimize the costs of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation and the requester. For example, a line-by-line search for responsive material should not be performed when merely reproducing an entire document would be the less expensive and the faster method of complying with a request for information. Searches may be done manually or by computer using existing programming. A “search” for material that is responsive to a request should be distinguished from a “review” of material to determine whether the material is exempt from disclosure. There are four categories of requesters: Commercial use requesters; educational and noncommercial scientific institutions; representatives of the news media; and all other requesters. (a) The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation shall charge fees for records requested by or on behalf of educational institutions and noncommercial scientific institutions in an amount which equals the cost of reproducing the documents responsive to the request, excluding the costs of reproducing the first 100 pages. For a request to be included in this category, requesters must show that the request being made is authorized by and under the auspices of a qualifying institution and that the records are not sought for a commercial use but are sought in furtherance of scholarly research (if the request is from an educational institution) or scientific research (if the request is from a noncommercial scientific institution). (b) The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation shall charge fees for records requested by representatives of the news media in an amount which equals the cost of reproducing the documents responsive to the request, excluding the costs of reproducing the first 100 pages. For a request to be included in this category, the requester must qualify as a representative of the news media and the request must not be made for a commercial use. A request for records supporting the news dissemination function of the requester shall not be considered to be a request that is for a commercial use. (c) The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation shall charge fees for records requested by persons or entities making a commercial use request in an amount that equals the full direct costs for searching for, reviewing for release, and reproducing the records sought. Commercial use requesters are not entitled to 2 hours of free search time nor 100 free pages of reproduction of documents. In accordance with §1402.26, commercial use requesters may be charged the costs of searching for and reviewing records even if there is ultimately no disclosure of records. (d) The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation shall charge fees for records requested by persons or entities that are not classified in any of the categories listed in paragraphs (a), (b), or (c) of this section in an amount that equals the full reasonable direct cost of searching for and reproducing records that are responsive to the request, excluding the first 2 hours of search time and the cost of reproducing the first 100 pages of records. In accordance with §1402.26, requesters in this category may be charged the cost of searching for records even if there is ultimately no disclosure of records, excluding the first 2 hours of search time. (e) For purposes of the exceptions contained in this section on assessment of fees, the word pages refers to paper copies of “8 (f) For purposes of paragraph (d) of this section, the term search time has as its basis, manual search. To apply this term to searches made by computer, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation will determine the hourly cost of operating the central processing unit and the operator's hourly salary plus 16 percent of that rate. When the cost of search (including the operator time and the cost of operating the computer to process a request) equals the equivalent dollar amount of 2 hours of the salary of the person performing the search, i.e., the operator, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation will begin assessing charges for computer search. (a) Generally, the fees charged for requests for records shall cover the full allowable direct costs of searching for, reproducing, and reviewing documents that are responsive to a request for information. (b) Manual searches for records will be charged at the salary rate(s) (i.e., basic pay plus 16 percent of that rate) of the employee(s) making the search. (c) Computer searches for records will be charged at the actual direct cost of providing the service. This will include the cost of operating the central processing unit for that portion of operating time that is directly attributable to searching for records and the operator/programmer salary apportionable to the search. A charge shall also be made for any substantial amounts of special supplies or materials used to contain, present, or make available the output of computers, based upon the prevailing levels of costs to the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation for the type and amount of such supplies of materials that are used. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to entitle any person or entity, as a right, to any services in connection with computerized records, other than services to which such person or entity may be entitled under the provisions of this subpart. (d) Only requesters who are seeking documents for commercial use may be charged for time spent reviewing records to determine whether they are exempt from mandatory disclosure. Charges may be assessed only for the initial review; i.e., the review undertaken the first time the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation analyzes the applicability of a specific exemption to a particular record or portion of a record. Records or portions of records withheld in full under an exemption that is subsequently determined not to apply may be reviewed again to determine the applicability of other exemptions not previously considered. The costs for such a subsequent review is assessable. (e) Records will be reproduced at a rate of $.15 per page. For copies prepared by computer, such as tapes or printouts, the requester shall be charged the actual cost, including operator time, of production of the tape or printout. For other methods of reproduction, the actual direct costs of producing the document(s) shall be charged. (f) The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation will recover the full costs of providing services such as those enumerated below when it elects to provide them: (1) Certifying that records are true copies; or (2) Sending records by special methods such as express mail. (g) Remittances shall be in the form either of a personal check or bank draft drawn on a bank in the United States, or a postal money order. Remittances shall be made payable to the order of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation. (h) A receipt for fees paid will be given upon request. (a) The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may grant a waiver or reduction of fees if the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation determines that the disclosure of the information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the Government, and the disclosure of the information is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester. (b) The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation will not charge fees to any requester, including commercial use requesters, if the cost of collecting a fee would be equal to or greater than the fee itself. The elements to be considered in determining the “cost of collecting a fee” are the administrative costs of receiving and recording a requester's remittance and processing the fee. (a) Where it is anticipated that the fees chargeable will amount to more than $25 and the requester has not indicated in advance a willingness to pay fees as high as are anticipated, the requester shall be promptly notified of the amount of the anticipated fee or such portion thereof that can be readily estimated. (b) If the anticipated fees exceed $250 and if the requester has a history of promptly paying fees charged in connection with information requests, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may obtain satisfactory assurances that the requester will fully pay the fees anticipated. (c) If the anticipated fees exceed $250 and if the requester has no history of paying fees charged in connection with information requests, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may require an advance payment of fees in an amount up to the full amount anticipated. (d) If the requester has previously failed to pay a fee charged within 30 days of the date of a billing for fees charged in connection with information requests, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may require the requester to pay the fees owed, plus interest, or demonstrate that the full amount owed has been paid, and require the requester to make an advance payment of the full amount of the fees anticipated before processing a new request or a pending request from that requester. (e) The notice of the amount of an anticipated fee or a request for an advance deposit shall include an offer to the requester to confer with identified Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation personnel to attempt to reformulate the request in a manner which will meet the needs of the requester at a lower cost. The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may begin charging interest on unpaid fees, starting on the 31st day following the day on which the bill for such fees was sent. Interest will not accrue if payment of the fees has been received by the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation, even if said payment has not been processed. Interest will accrue at the rate prescribed in section 3717 of title 31, United States Code, and will accrue from the day on which the bill for such fees was sent. The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may assess charges for time spent searching for records on behalf of requesters in the categories provided for in §1402.21 (c) and (d), even if there are no records that are responsive to the request or there is ultimately no disclosure of records. The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may assess charges for time spent reviewing records for requesters in the category provided for in §1402.21(c) even if the records located are determined to be exempt from disclosure. A requester may not file multiple requests at the same time, each seeking portions of a document or documents, solely in order to avoid payment of fees. When the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation reasonably believes that a requester, or a group of requesters acting in concert, is attempting to break a request down into a series of requests for the purpose of evading the assessment of fees, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation may aggregate any such requests and charge accordingly. One element to be considered in determining whether a belief would be reasonable is the time period over which the requests have occurred.
Title 12: Banks and Banking
PART 1402—RELEASING INFORMATION
Subpart C—Fees for Provision of Information
§ 1402.20 Definitions.
§ 1402.21 Categories of requesters—fees.
§ 1402.22 Fees to be charged.
§ 1402.23 Waiver or reduction of fees.
§ 1402.24 Advance payments—notice.
§ 1402.25 Interest.
§ 1402.26 Charges for unsuccessful searches or reviews.
§ 1402.27 Aggregating requests.
