Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve Board on Friday finalized a rule that implements technical, clarifying updates to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures and changes to its rules for the disclosure of confidential supervisory information (CSI), which is supervisory information belonging to the Board that may include proprietary financial institution-specific information. The final rule is generally similar to the proposal from June 2019, with a few changes in response to public comments.

The final rule updates the Board's FOIA regulation to be consistent with the Board's current practices and to incorporate recent changes in law and guidance. Some of these changes include updating definitions for expedited processing and the different categories of requesters. The revisions also clarify terms and help users more easily navigate the process of filing a FOIA request.

The final rule provides clarifying revisions to the definition of CSI, and, like the proposal, does not expand or reduce the information that falls within the current definition of CSI. The final rule also updates certain outdated and inefficient restrictions governing the disclosure of CSI. For example, the final rule allows supervised financial institutions to share CSI with all affiliates, rather than only with their parent bank holding companies. In a change from the proposal, the final rule will allow financial institutions to share CSI with service providers without obtaining Reserve Bank approval.

The final rule is effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

For media inquiries, call 202-452-2955