12 C.F.R. § 1703.25 Miscellaneous fee provisions.
Title 12 - Banks and Banking
(a) Notice of anticipated fees in excess of $25.00. Where OFHEO determines or estimates that the fees chargeable will amount to more than $25.00, OFHEO shall promptly notify the requester of the actual or estimated amount of fees or such portion thereof that can be readily estimated, unless the requester has indicated his or her willingness to pay fees as high as those anticipated. Where a requester has been notified that the actual or estimated fees may exceed $25.00, the request will be deemed not to have been received until the requester has agreed to pay the anticipated total fee. A notice to the requester pursuant to this paragraph will include the opportunity to confer with OFHEO personnel in order to reformulate the request to meet the requester's needs at a lower cost. (b) Aggregating requests. A requester may not file multiple requests at the same time, each seeking portions of a record or records, solely in order to avoid the payment of fees. When OFHEO reasonably believes that a requester, or a group of requesters acting in concert, is attempting to break a request into a series of requests for the purpose of evading the assessment of fees, OFHEO may aggregate 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. OFHEO will presume that multiple requests of this type made within a 30-day period have been made in order to evade fees. Where requests are separated by a longer period, OFHEO shall aggregate them only where there exists a solid basis for determining that such aggregation is warranted, e.g., where the requests involve clearly related matters. Multiple requests regarding unrelated matters will not be aggregated. (c) Advance payment of fees. (1) OFHEO does not require an advance payment before work is commenced or continued, unless— (i) OFHEO estimates or determines that the fees are likely to exceed $250.00. If it appears that the fees will exceed $250.00, OFHEO will notify the requester of the likely cost and obtain satisfactory assurance of full payment where the requester has a history of prompt payment of FOIA fees. In the case of requesters with no history of payment, OFHEO may require an advance payment of fees in an amount up to the full estimated charge that will be incurred; or (ii) The requester has previously failed to pay a fee in a timely fashion, i.e., within 30 days of the date of a billing. In such cases, OFHEO may require the requester to pay the full amount owed plus any applicable interest, as provided in paragraph (d) of this section, or demonstrate that the fee owed has been paid, prior to processing any further record request. Under these circumstances, OFHEO may require the requester to make an advance payment of the full amount of the fees anticipated before processing a new request or finishing processing of a pending request from that requester. (2) A request for an advance deposit shall include an offer to the requester to confer with identified OFHEO personnel to attempt to reformulate the request in a manner which will meet the needs of the requester at a lower cost. (3) When OFHEO requests an advance payment of fees, the administrative time limits described in 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6) begin only after OFHEO has received the advance payment. (d) Interest. OFHEO may assess interest charges on an unpaid bill starting on the 31st day following the day on which the bill was sent. Once a fee payment has been received by OFHEO, even if not processed, the accrual of interest shall be stayed. Interest charges shall be assessed at the rate prescribed in 31 U.S.C. 3717 and shall accrue from the date of the billing.
Title 12: Banks and Banking
PART 1703—RELEASE OF INFORMATION
Subpart D—Fees for Provision of Information
§ 1703.25 Miscellaneous fee provisions.
