For purposes of this part:

(a) Business day means any day except Saturday, Sunday or a legal Federal holiday.

(b) CFPB means the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

(c) Chief FOIA Officer means the Chief Operating Officer of the CFPB.

(d) Chief Operating Officer means the Chief Operating Officer of the CFPB, or any CFPB employee to whom the Chief Operating Officer has delegated authority to act under this part.

(e) Civil investigative demand material means any documentary material, written report, or answers to questions, tangible thing, or transcript of oral testimony received by the CFPB in any form or format pursuant to a civil investigative demand, as those terms are set forth in 12 U.S.C. 5562, or received by the CFPB voluntarily in lieu of a civil investigative demand.

(f) Confidential information means confidential consumer complaint information, confidential investigative information, and confidential supervisory information, as well as any other CFPB information that may be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b). Confidential information does not include information contained in records that have been made publicly available by the CFPB or information that has otherwise been publicly disclosed by an employee with the authority to do so.

(g) Confidential consumer complaint information means information received or generated by the CFPB, pursuant to 12 U.S.C. 5493 and 5534, that comprises or documents consumer complaints or inquiries concerning financial institutions or consumer financial products and services and responses thereto, to the extent that such information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b).

(h) Confidential investigative information means:

(1) Civil investigative demand material; and

(2) Any documentary material prepared by, on behalf of, received by, or for the use by the CFPB or any other Federal or State agency in the conduct of an investigation of or enforcement action against a person, and any information derived from such documents.

(i)

(1) Confidential supervisory information means:

(i) Reports of examination, inspection and visitation, non-public operating, condition, and compliance reports, and any information contained in, derived from, or related to such reports;

(ii) Any documents, including reports of examination, prepared by, or on behalf of, or for the use of the CFPB or any other Federal, State, or foreign government agency in the exercise of supervisory authority over a financial institution, and any information derived from such documents;

(iii) Any communications between the CFPB and a supervised financial institution or a Federal, State, or foreign government agency related to the CFPB's supervision of the institution;

(iv) any information provided to the CFPB by a financial institution to enable the CFPB to monitor for risks to consumers in the offering or provision of consumer financial products or services, or to assess whether an institution should be considered a covered person, as that term is defined by 12 U.S.C. 5481, or is subject to the CFPB's supervisory authority; and/or

(v) Information that is exempt from disclosure pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(8).

(2) Confidential supervisory information does not include documents prepared by a financial institution for its own business purposes and that the CFPB does not possess.

(j) Director means the Director of the CFPB or his or her designee, or a person authorized to perform the functions of the Director in accordance with law.

(k) Employee means all current employees or officials of the CFPB, including employees of contractors and any other individuals who have been appointed by, or are subject to the supervision, jurisdiction, or control of the Director, as well as the Director. The procedures established within this part also apply to former employees where specifically noted.

(l) Financial institution means any person involved in the offering or provision of a “financial product or service,” including a “covered person” or “service provider,” as those terms are defined by 12 U.S.C. 5481.

(m) General Counsel means the General Counsel of the CFPB or any CFPB employee to whom the General Counsel has delegated authority to act under this part.

(n) Person means an individual, partnership, company, corporation, association (incorporated or unincorporated), trust, estate, cooperative organization, or other entity.

(o) Report of examination means the report prepared by the CFPB concerning the examination or inspection of a supervised financial institution.

(p) State means any State, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the United States Virgin Islands or any Federally recognized Indian tribe, as defined by the Secretary of the Interior under section 104(a) of the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 479a-1(a)), and includes any political subdivision thereof.

(q) Supervised financial institution means a financial institution that is or that may become subject to the CFPB's supervisory authority.

[78 FR 11503, Feb. 15, 2013, as amended at 83 FR 46084, Sept. 12, 2018]