February 19, 2026
SENT BY EMAIL
XXXX
Re: 2026-APP-00005 (Appeal of Response 2026-FOI-070)
Dear XXXX:
On December 17, 2025, you submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (2026-FOI-070) to the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) for copies of records maintained by the NCUA relating to XXXX. Specifically, this request is limited to records sufficient to identify the following:
- Credit Union Investments and Ownership Records identifying federally insured credit unions that have invested in, lent to, or otherwise hold an ownership interest in the CUSO, including:
- The names of such credit unions
- The nature of the investment or ownership interest
- The dates on which these interests were reported to or reflected in NCUA records
- This includes relevant CUSO Registry filings or similar records reflecting ownership or investment relationships.
- CUSO Legal Formation and State Registration Records reflecting NCUA’s understanding of the CUSO’s legal structure and organization, including:
- The state in which the CUSO was identified as being formed or organized
- The entity type, such as a limited liability company or corporation
- Records submitted to or maintained by NCUA concerning the CUSO’s formation, registration, or legal status under state law.
By letter of January 21, 2026, the NCUA FOIA Processing Center (FOIA Office) granted your FOIA request in part. Three pages were released to you in full and no pages were released with partial redactions. Two pages were withheld in full. The FOIA Office explained that these documents represent all records responsive to your request and information was redacted or withheld pursuant to the FOIA exemptions at 5 U.S.C. §552 (b)(4) (Exemption 4), (b)(5) (Exemption 5), and (b)(8) (Exemption 8). Exemption 4 protects from disclosure records related to trade secrets and other confidential business information. Exemption 5 protects from disclosure information under the deliberative process privilege. Exemption 8 protects from disclosure records relating to the examination of banks and other financial institutions by agencies that regulate or supervise them. The FOIA Office also explained that, in determining whether to withhold information, the NCUA determined that the harm from disclosure is reasonably foreseeable.1
You appealed this determination in a correspondence received on January 23, 2026. Your appeal disputes the agency’s use of Exemptions 4, 5, and 8 to withhold the records responsive to item 1 of your request—records identifying federally insured credit unions that have invested in, lent to, or otherwise hold an ownership interest in the CUSO. Specifically, you are challenging the complete withholding of these records and asking the agency to conduct a segregability review.
Upon a full and independent review, your appeal is denied, as discussed more fully below.
Exemption 4
In your appeal, you argue that disclosing the names of federally insured credit unions involved with a CUSO would not reveal trade secrets or confidential commercial information. You note that credit unions file CUSO data with the NCUA in a regulatory context and contend that “the existence of ownership or lending relationships is not confidential ‘commercial’ information in the competitive sense recognized by courts.” You assert that, even if investment amounts or proprietary terms are withheld, information about the identities of the credit unions and the existence of a relationship should be segregable.
Exemption 4 is intended to protect the interests of both the government and submitters of information.2 This exemption covers two categories of information in agency records: (1) trade secrets; and (2) commercial or financial information obtained from a person that is privileged or confidential.3 The terms “commercial or financial” are given their ordinary meanings4 and information is generally found to be commercial or financial if it relates to business or trade,5 or if the submitter has a “commercial interest” in them.6 For example, information on a company’s “finance structure, business partners, and customers” qualifies as commercial information exempt from disclosure because such information “cuts to the core of [a company’s] business, and there is little doubt a competitor could rely on this information to [the company’s] detriment.”7
When Exemption 4 is implicated, the interest protected by the exemption is the information’s confidentiality.8 The term “confidential” is given its “ordinary” meaning of “private” or “secret” for purposes of Exemption 4.9 Thus, if commercial or financial information is held in confidence and given to the government under an assurance of confidentiality, the foreseeable harm standard is satisfied and the information may be withheld.10
The information you requested qualifies as confidential commercial or financial information that is within the scope of Exemption 4. Records reflecting the CUSO’s ownership, lending, or investment relationships with credit unions is commercial information that cuts to the core of the CUSO’s business. The CUSO customarily and actually holds such information in confidence as private information, and the CUSO’s confidential commercial information is only in possession of the NCUA in its capacity as the federal agency that charters, regulates, and insures federally insured credit unions. Any commercial or financial information submitted to the agency through the CUSO Registry was provided under an express assurance of confidentiality. Indeed, the following statement is prominently posted on the NCUA’s CUSO Registry public webpage:
NCUA’s Commitment to the Security of CUSO Data
The Freedom of Information Act and the NCUA’s FOIA regulations, as well as the applicable exemptions, apply to the information a CUSO submits to the NCUA. The NCUA anticipates that a CUSO may submit information that includes trade secrets and privileged or confidential commercial or financial information. We are committed to securing this data as required by FOIA, and will not release such information to the public. The NCUA will share CUSO information with state supervisory authorities that have signed information-sharing agreements with the agency.11
Accordingly, the information you requested is properly withheld as exempt from FOIA release under Exemption 4.
Reasonably Segregable
You argue in your appeal that even where a FOIA exemption applies to portions of a document, basic identifying information such as the names of federally insured credit unions with an interest in the CUSO; the nature of the interest (equity, loan, etc.) stated at a high level; and the dates on which such interests were reported “is routinely segregable and not inherently deliberative or proprietary in the FOIA sense.” You ask that the NCUA conduct a segregability analysis of the withheld responsive records.
If an agency determines that it cannot or should not make full disclosure of a requested record, the FOIA calls for agencies to “consider whether partial disclosure of information is possible” and “take reasonable steps necessary to segregate and release nonexempt information.”12 However, the NCUA is not required to disclose information “inextricably intertwined with exempt portions,”13 and “need not disclose a redacted version of [a record] if the unredacted markings would have minimal or no information content.”14
The requested records that were withheld are fully exempt under Exemption 4 or inextricably intertwined with exempt portions of the records. There are no reasonably segregable portions of the agency’s responsive records that can be disclosed without causing reasonably foreseeable harm to the submitter CUSO. A redacted version of the records would have minimal or no information content. Accordingly, the requested information is properly withheld as fully exempt pursuant to Exemption 4.
Because Exemption 4 is wholly dispositive and suffices to allow the agency to withhold the requested CUSO information in full, discussion of the remaining FOIA exemptions is unnecessary.
For these reasons, your FOIA appeal is denied. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. §552(a)(4)(B) of the FOIA, you may seek judicial review of this determination by filing suit against the NCUA. Such a suit may be filed in the United States District Court where you reside, where your principal place of business is located, the District of Columbia, or where any documents, if available, are located (the Eastern District of Virginia).
The 2007 FOIA amendments created the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) to offer mediation services to resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation. Using OGIS services does not affect your right to pursue litigation. You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways:
Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road - OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: ogis@nara.gov
Web: https://ogis.archives.gov
Telephone: 202.741.5770
Toll-free: 877.684.6448
Fax: 202.741.5769
Sincerely,
/s/
Frank Kressman
General Counsel
GC/PY
2026-APP-00005; 2026-FOI-070
Footnotes
1 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(8)(A)(i).
2 See Food Mktg. Inst. v. Argus Leader Media, 588 U.S. 427, 440 (2019).
3 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4).
4 Pub. Citizen Health Rsch. Grp. v. FDA, 704 F.2d 1280, 1290 (D.C. Cir. 1983); accord Watkins v. CBP, 643 F.3d 1189, 1194 (9th Cir. 2011) (“The terms ‘commercial or financial’ are given their ordinary meanings.”) (citing Pub. Citizen Health Rsch. Grp., 704 F.2d at 1290)).
5 See Majuc v. DOJ, No. 18-0566, 2022 WL 266700, at *5 (D.D.C. Jan. 28, 2022); Leopold v. DOJ, No. 19-3192, 2021 WL 124489, at *6 (D.D.C. Jan. 13, 2021).
6 Pub. Citizen Health Rsch. Grp., 704 F.2d at 1290 (citing Wash. Post Co. v. HHS, 690 F.2d 252, 266 (D.C. Cir. 1982) and Bd. of Trade v. Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n, 627 F.2d 392, 403 (D.C. Cir. 1980)).
7 100Reporters LLC v. United States Dep't of Just., 248 F. Supp. 3d 115, 143 (D.D.C. 2017).
8 American Small Business League v. Department of Defense, 3:18-cv-01979-WHA (N.D. Cal. 2019) ECF No. 153 at 14.
9 Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, 139 S. Ct. 2356, 2363 (2019) (finding that “where commercial or financial information is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner and provided to the government under an assurance of privacy, the information is ‘confidential’ within the meaning of Exemption 4.”).
10 American Small Business League at 14.
11 See CUSO Registry, available online at https://ncua.gov/regulation-supervision/regulatory-reporting/cuso-registry; see also, Online CUSO Registry to Open for Registrations in February, NCUA Letter to Credit Unions 16-CU-02 (January 2016).
12 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(8)(A)(ii).
13 Mead Data Cent., Inc. v. United States Dep't of the Air Force, 566 F.2d 242, 260 (D.C. Cir. 1977).
14 Perioperative Servs. & Logistics, LLC v. U.S. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, 57 F.4th 1061, 1069 (D.C. Cir. 2023) (citing Mead Data Center, Inc. v. Dep’t of the Air Force, 566 F.2d 242, 261 n.55 (D.C. Cir. 1977)).