As long as you identify the customer categories and note that the customers are natural persons, you do not need to disclose the names of the natural persons.
Question
We represent a credit union that has plans to merge with another credit union in a reportable transaction under the HSR Act.
The merging parties both generate revenue in the NAICS code 522130 Credit Unions. Therefore, the Competitive Descriptions section of the HSR form instructions require the client to “provide the top 10 customers in the most recent year (as measured in dollars), and the top 10 customers for each customer category identified.”
Based on discussions with the client, we believe the client’s customers can be broken into the following categories: business loans, business deposits, consumer loans, and consumer deposits.
Do the rules require the client to disclose the names of these natural persons who are top customers in the categories of consumer loans and consumer deposits? Our client would prefer not to provide this information for natural persons, given sensitivities around the disclosure of personal financial information of individual consumers. And we don’t believe that this level of detail would assist the agencies in analyzing the proposed transaction.
We would appreciate any guidance you may be able to provide on this issue. Thank you in advance for your consideration.