The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has proposed a new rule that could potentially speed up the agency’s process for considering Freedom of Information Act requests from the public. According to an OCC bulletin published today, the proposed rule would amend regulations to allow members of the public to request expedited processing of their initial FOIA requests at any time. It would also allow them to appeal denials of expedited processing requests as well as appeal denials of fee waiver requests.
The OCC is also proposing to remove the “competitive harm” standard for information provided to the government on an involuntary basis and to update the definition of confidential commercial information to more closely follow FOIA. The agency said it is making the changes because it has identified instances in which its regulations do not align with the FOIA statute.
