[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 12, Volume 3]
[Revised as of January 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 12CFR271.2]

[Page 851-852]
 
                       TITLE 12--BANKS AND BANKING
 
                   CHAPTER II--FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
 
PART 271--RULES REGARDING AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 271.2  Definitions.

    (a) Board means the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 
established by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 (38 Stat. 251).
    (b) Commercial use request refers to a request from or on behalf of 
one who seeks information for a use or purpose that furthers the 
commercial, trade, or profit interests of the requester or the person on 
whose behalf the request is made.
    (c) Direct costs mean those expenditures that the Committee actually 
incurs in searching for, reviewing, and duplicating documents in 
response to a request made under Sec. 271.5.
    (d) Duplication refers to the process of making a copy of a document 
in response to a request for disclosure of records or for inspection of 
original records that contain exempt material or that otherwise cannot 
be inspected directly. Among others, such copies may take the form of 
paper, microform, audiovisual materials, or machine-readable 
documentation (e.g., magnetic tape or disk).
    (e) Educational institution refers to a preschool, a public or 
private elementary or secondary school, or an institution of 
undergraduate higher education, graduate higher education, professional 
education, or an institution of vocational education that operates a 
program of scholarly research.
    (f) Federal Reserve Bank means one of the district Banks authorized 
by the Federal Reserve Act, 12 U.S.C. 222, including any branch of any 
such Bank.
    (g) Information of the Committee means all information coming into 
the possession of the Committee or of any member thereof or of any 
officer, employee, or agent of the Committee, the Board, or any Federal 
Reserve Bank, in the performance of duties for, or pursuant to the 
direction of, the Committee.
    (h) Noncommercial scientific institution refers to an institution 
that is not operated on a ``commercial'' basis (as that term is used in 
this section) and which is operated solely for the purpose of conducting 
scientific research, the results of which are not intended to promote 
any particular product or industry.
    (i) Records of the Committee includes rules, statements, decisions, 
minutes, memoranda, letters, reports, transcripts, accounts, charts, and 
other written material, as well as any materials in machine readable 
form that

[[Page 852]]

constitute a part of the Committee's official files.
    (j) Representative of the news media refers to any person actively 
gathering news for an entity that is organized and operated to publish 
or broadcast news to the public.
    (1) The term ``news'' means information about current events or that 
would be of current interest to the public.
    (2) Examples of news media entities include, but are not limited to, 
television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large, and 
publishers of newspapers and other periodicals (but only in those 
instances when they can qualify as disseminators of ``news'') who make 
their products available for purchase or subscription by the general 
public.
    (3) ``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 not actually employed 
by it.
    (k)(1) Review refers to the process of examining documents, located 
in response to a request for access, to determine whether any portion of 
a document is exempt information. It includes doing all that is 
necessary to excise the documents and otherwise to prepare them for 
release.
    (2) Review does not include time spent resolving general legal or 
policy issues regarding the application of exemptions.
    (l)(1) Search means a reasonable search, by manual or automated 
means, of the Committee's official files and any other files containing 
records of the Committee as seem reasonably likely in the particular 
circumstances to contain documents of the kind requested. For purposes 
of computing fees under Sec. 271.9, search time includes all time spent 
looking for material that is responsive to a request, including line-by-
line identification of material within documents. Such activity is 
distinct from ``review'' of material to determine whether the material 
is exempt from disclosure.
    (2) Search does not mean or include research, creation of any 
document, or extensive modification of an existing program or system 
that would significantly interfere with the operation of the Committee's 
automated information system.