2023-01-01 | JPRF-A-2023-075

JPRF-A-2023-075 — Thematic Index by Documentary Series of Files Classified as Reserved by the Financial Policy and Regulation Board

The Financial Policy and Regulation Board of Ecuador issued Resolution JPRF-A-2023-075 to establish a Thematic Index by Documentary Series for files classified as reserved. The resolution defines reserved and confidential information, categorizing specific documents such as financial stability reports, internal communications, and legally protected data. It mandates a default ten-year reservation period, extendable to fifteen years, while strictly prohibiting unauthorized disclosure by public servants and establishing legal penalties for violations.

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Address: Av. Amazonas between Pereira and Unión Nacional de Periodistas, Financial Management Governmental Platform. Yellow Block, 5th Floor | Postal Code: 170507 | Quito - Ecuador | Resolution No. JPRF-A-2023-075

THE FINANCIAL POLICY AND REGULATION BOARD

CONSIDERING:

That Article 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador determines that among the main duties of the State is the guarantee of the full exercise of rights enshrined in the Constitution and international treaties in an equal and non-discriminatory manner;

That Article 18 of the Magna Carta provides that:

  1. Individuals and collectives have the right to: Seek, receive, exchange, produce, and disseminate truthful, verified, timely, contextualized, plural information without prior censorship regarding facts, events, and processes of general interest, with subsequent responsibility. 2. Access freely information generated in public entities, or in private ones that manage state funds or perform public functions. There shall be no reservation of information except in cases expressly established by law. In case of human rights violations, no public entity shall deny information.

That number 5 of Article 61 of the Supreme Norm states that Ecuadorians have the right to oversee the acts of public power, which must be guaranteed through information that is accessible and timely for the citizen;

That Article 91 of the Fundamental Charter establishes that: Public administration shall have the objective of guaranteeing access to it when access has been expressly or tacitly denied, or when the information provided is not complete or reliable. It may be filed even if the denial is based on the secret, reserved, confidential, or any other classification of the information. The reserved nature of the information must be declared prior to the request, by a competent authority and in accordance with the law.

That Article 225 of the Fundamental Norm, in its number 1, indicates that organisms and dependencies of the Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Electoral, and Transparency and Social Control Functions are part of the public sector;

That Article 226 of the Fundamental Norm provides that public servants and persons acting by virtue of state power shall exercise only the competencies and faculties attributed to them in the Constitution and the Law;

That Article 227 ibidem states that Public Administration constitutes a service to the community governed by principles of effectiveness, efficiency, quality, hierarchy, coordination, planning, transparency, among others;

That Article 9 of the Organic Monetary and Financial Code, Book I, orders that: Regulatory and control organisms and the Deposit Insurance Corporation, Liquidity Fund, and Private Insurance Fund, shall have the duty to coordinate actions for the fulfillment of their purposes and to make effective the enjoyment and exercise of rights recognized in the Constitution, for which effect they shall exchange data or reports related to entities subject to their regulation and control. Information subject to secrecy and reserve shall be treated in accordance with the provisions of this Code;

That Article 13 of the same Code created the Financial Policy and Regulation Board as part of the Executive Function, responsible for the formulation of credit, financial, securities, insurance, and prepaid comprehensive health care services policy and regulation; and shall be composed of three full-time members;

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Address: Av. Amazonas between Pereira and Unión Nacional de Periodistas, Financial Management Governmental Platform. Yellow Block, 5th Floor | Postal Code: 170507 | Quito - Ecuador |

That Article 14 of the Code ibidem, in numeral 5, second paragraph, establishes that, for the fulfillment of its functions, the Financial Policy and Regulation Board shall issue norms in matters within its competence without altering legal provisions;

That Article 14.1, number 2, and the first paragraph of Article 17 of the cited Code, determine that the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, in order to safeguard the integrity, solidity, sustainability, and financial stability of insurance, securities, and prepaid comprehensive health care services, may motivate the classification of information related to the scope of its management as reserved, in accordance with the procedure it establishes for this purpose;

That Article 19, ibidem in concordance with what is provided in Article 14.1, number 20, provides that the Financial Policy and Regulation Board shall issue norms regulating its functioning;

That Article 21 ut supra provides that acts of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board enjoy the presumption of legality and shall be expressed through resolutions, which may be classified as reserved;

That Article 272 of the referred Organic Code indicates that: Those who divulge, in whole or in part, information subject to secrecy or reserve, shall be sanctioned with a fine of twenty-five unified basic salaries, without prejudice to criminal responsibility that may arise;

That Article 355 of the cited Organic Code provides that: Those who come to have knowledge of information subject to secrecy or reserve may not divulge it in whole or in part. Non-compliance with these provisions shall be sanctioned by this Code, without prejudice to criminal responsibility;

That General Provision Seventeenth of the referred Code stipulates that State institutions, their organisms, dependencies, and persons acting by virtue of state power may exchange without restriction any information they possess that is necessary for the fulfillment of their objectives. Personal information is reserved and will not lose such condition by exchange with other State institutions, to whom such reserve shall be transferred;

That Articles 1 and 2 of the Organic Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information state that its object is to regulate and protect the right to access public information in compliance with the Constitution, the law, and international instruments ratified by the State; and, furthermore, its purpose is to protect, respect, promote, and guarantee that this right is accessible, timely, complete, and reliable;

That number 7 of Article 4 of the mentioned normative body establishes what is to be understood by reserved information or documentation, indicating that it is that generated or not by the subject, which exceptionally requires a limitation in its knowledge and distribution, according to criteria established by law, with no reservation of information in cases expressly established in the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador and the law;

That Article 11, letters c) and d) of the Organic Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information, published on February 7, 2023, in the Second Supplement of the Official Register No. 245, provides that, through its head or legal representative, it shall submit to the Ombudsman's Office, by the last working day of January of each year, an annual report on the compliance with the (c) Semi-annual report

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Address: Av. Amazonas between Pereira and Unión Nacional de Periodistas, Financial Management Governmental Platform. Yellow Block, 5th Floor | Postal Code: 170507 | Quito - Ecuador |

updated list of reserved information index; and d) The index of information classified as reserved, detailing the date of the resolution classifying the reserve and the period of its validity;

That Article 14 of the same Law mentions that obligated subjects may deny access to public information only on information declared reserved or confidential;

That Article 16 of the invoked Law states that: Information previously classified as reserved shall remain with such character for a period of ten years from its classification. The reserve period may be extended, without exceeding fifteen years, as long as the causes that gave rise to its classification remain and are justified, through an act or resolution;

That Article 17 of the aforementioned normative body establishes in its content the procedure for classifying reserved information, and in its number 3 indicates that in the case of collegiate bodies, the minutes declaring the reserve must be signed by the number of members who approved the reserve;

That Obligated subjects shall have a maximum period of one hundred eighty (180) days from the publication of the present Law in the Official Register to adapt to the obligations contained therein.

That Article 22, letter a) and final paragraph of the Organic Law on Public Service state that public servants must respect, comply with, and enforce what is determined in the Constitution of the Republic and the law, as well as safeguard and care for documentation and information that, by reason of their employment, position, or commission, is under their responsibility and prevent or avoid its improper use, theft, concealment, or destruction;

That the Operating Regulations of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, issued by Resolution No. JPRF-A-2022-022 of March 16, 2022, determines that the Board may motivate the classification of information in the scope of its management as reserved;

That, Classified as Reserved of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, the integrity and sensitivity of its information and establish a catalog of reserved documents;

That the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, in an ordinary session held by technological means, convened on August 4, 2023, on August 8, 2023, reviewed and approved the following Resolution; and,

In exercise of its functions,

RESOLVES:

ARTICLE 1.- Classified

ARTICLE 2.- For the purposes of this Resolution, the following definitions will be used:

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Address: Av. Amazonas between Pereira and Unión Nacional de Periodistas, Financial Management Governmental Platform. Yellow Block, 5th Floor | Postal Code: 170507 | Quito - Ecuador |

Reserved Information: Information or documentation, final or preparatory, whether or not generated by the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, that exceptionally requires a limitation in its knowledge and distribution, according to criteria expressly established by law, and provided that its publication is not possible under a dissociation procedure, due to a clear, probable, and specific risk of damage to public interests, in accordance with the requirements contemplated in the Organic Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information. There shall be no reservation of information in cases expressly established in the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador and the law.

Confidential Information: Information or documentation, in any format, final or preparatory, whether or not generated by the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, derived from personal and fundamental rights, and requires express authorization of its holder for its dissemination, which contains data that, if revealed, could damage the following private interests: a) The right to privacy, including privacy related to life, health, or security, as well as the right to honor and one's own image; b) Personal data whose dissemination requires the consent of their holders and must be treated as provided in the Organic Law on Personal Data Protection; c) Legitimate commercial and economic interests; and, d) Patents, copyrights, and trade secrets.

ARTICLE 3.- The Thematic Index by Documentary Series of Files Classified as Reserved of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, excluded from the right of access to public information provided in the Organic Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information, is the following:

  1. Reports, documents, analyses, resolutions, and in general documentation related to maintaining the integrity, solidity, sustainability, and stability of the national financial, securities, insurance, and prepaid comprehensive health care services systems;
  2. Information sent with the character of reserved or confidential by control organisms and other public institutions;
  3. Reports, documents, analyses, resolutions, and in general documentation sent by Participating Entities of the collegiate body of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, which have the character of reserved or confidential;
  4. Resolutions issued by the Financial Policy and Regulation Board that have the character of reserved;
  5. Any other report, document, analysis, resolution, and in general documentation related to the scope of its management, which is expressly and motivatedly classified as reserved by the Financial Policy and Regulation Board; and,
  6. Memorandums, emails, their attachments or attached documents, and other internal communications related to the documents detailed in this Index.

ARTICLE 4.- Understand that all documents and information that by Law are considered as reserved or confidential are incorporated into the Thematic Index.

ARTICLE 5.- The information included in the list detailed in Article 3 of this Resolution, in any format or medium, will lose the quality of reserved after ten (10) years have passed from its date of elaboration or receipt.

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Address: Av. Amazonas between Pereira and Unión Nacional de Periodistas, Financial Management Governmental Platform. Yellow Block, 5th Floor | Postal Code: 170507 | Quito - Ecuador |

The reserve period may be extended, without exceeding fifteen (15) years, as long as the causes that gave rise to its classification remain and are justified, through a motivated resolution.

ARTICLE 6.- The President of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board is authorized and empowered to transmit or deliver reserved information in accordance with what is established by law, when deemed necessary.

ARTICLE 7.- The declassification of information classified as reserved shall be carried out in accordance with what is established in the current legal regulations.

ARTICLE 8.- The dissemination by any means or act of reserved information shall give rise to the exercise of pertinent legal actions, as well as the determination of corresponding administrative, civil, and criminal responsibilities.

ARTICLE 9.- Public servants and workers of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board are prohibited from reproducing, transmitting, revealing, or in general using for personal or third-party benefit, even for informational or academic purposes, information declared as reserved by the Financial Policy and Regulation Board and information declared as reserved by entities of the Central and Institutional Public Administration.

At all times, necessary security measures must be adopted to protect and guarantee the reserve and confidentiality of the information or documentation.

FINAL PROVISION.- This Resolution shall enter into force from its publication in the Official Register. Publish it on the institutional website of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board within a maximum term of two days from its issuance.

COMMUNICATE.- Given in the Metropolitan District of Quito, on August 8, 2023.

THE PRESIDENT, Mgs. María Paulina Vela Zambrano

The aforementioned resolution was processed and signed by Master María Paulina Vela Zambrano, President of the Financial Policy and Regulation Board, in the Metropolitan District of Quito, on August 8, 2023.- I CERTIFY.

TECHNICAL SECRETARY Dr. Nelly Arias Zavala