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CUNA Regulatory Comment Call

August 19, 2008

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Proposed Revision to Regulation S – Reimbursement to Financial Institutions for Providing Records

• The Federal Reserve Board (Fed) is proposing to amend Regulation S, the Right to Financial Privacy Act, which determines the rates and conditions in which a government agency must reimburse a financial institution for costs incurred in producing consumer financial records. These amendments update the fees that may be charged by financial institutions and incorporates recent advances in electronic document productions. The proposal also clarifies that reimbursement is available for all agency requests, in addition to those received by court order or subpoena.
• The personnel fees that may be charged for searching and processing document requests are increased substantially. Here are the new fees, which are hourly rates:
  • Clerical/Technical - $22
  • Computer Support Specialist - $30
  • Manager/Supervisor - $30
• The proposal includes a new “per electronic production” charge of $5 instead of the previous “per diskette” charge, and this will cover the cost of all electronic media or email transmissions that are necessary to respond to a request.
• The proposal will implement a mechanism to periodically update these reimbursement rates, based on changes in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. These would be adjusted every five years.
• Financial institutions may continue to request reimbursement for photocopies at the existing rate of 25-cents per page, although the fee may only be charged if the institution is reproducing information that is already stored in paper form or if the agency making the request has specifically requested printed copies of information that is stored electronically. This is intended to encourage electronic submissions, which is what many agencies now prefer.
• Comments are due by September 29, 2008. Please submit your comments to CUNA by September 22, 2008.

Please feel free to fax your responses to CUNA at 202-638-7052; e-mail them to Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Mary Dunn at mdunn@cuna.coop and to Senior Assistant General Counsel Jeff Bloch at jbloch@cuna.coop; or mail them to Mary and Jeff c/o CUNA’s Regulatory Advocacy Department, 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, South Building, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004-2601. You may also contact us at 800-356-9655, ext. 6732, if you would like a copy of the proposal. You may also access it here,

• Do you agree with the proposed reimbursement rates and the new “per electronic production” category that will encompass the cost of all electronic media?
  
  

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• Do you agree that these reimbursement rates should be updated every five years based on BLS survey data? Are there other alternatives for determining these fees?
  
  

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• Do you believe that fees for microfiche duplication are outdated and should be eliminated?
  
  

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• Other comments?
  
  

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