APPROVAL OF FINAL REGULATIONS FOR PRIVACY OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL INFORMATION.The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System The managing body of the Federal Reserve System, which sets policies on bank practices and the money supply. , the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), an independent U.S. federal executive agency designed to promote public confidence in banks and to provide insurance coverage for bank deposits up to $100,000. , the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (or OCC) was established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all national banks and the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States. , and the Office of Thrift Supervision The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) was established as a bureau of the Treasury Department in August 1989 as part of a major Reorganization Plan of the thrift regulatory structure mandated by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) (12 U.S.C.A. on May 10, 2000, approved the issuance of final regulations implementing the provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, Pub. L. No. 106-102, 113 Stat. 1338 (November 12, 1999), is an Act of the United States Congress which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, opening up competition governing the privacy of consumer financial information. The regulations resulted from an interagency effort. They impose three main requirements established by the act: * Financial institutions must provide initial notices to customers about their privacy policies, describing the conditions under which they may disclose nonpublic personal information to non-affiliated third parties and affiliates. These notices must be accurate, clear, and conspicuous. * Financial institutions must provide annual notices of their privacy policies to their current customers. These notices must be accurate, clear, and conspicuous. * Financial institutions must provide a reasonable method for consumers to "opt out" of disclosures to non-affiliated third parties; that is, consumers must be given a reasonable opportunity to "opt out" and a reasonable means to do so. Consumers may exercise their "opt out" option at any time. The regulations, which are identical in all substantive reports, apply to financial institutions for which the agencies have primary supervisory authority. The regulations limit disclosure by financial institutions of "nonpublic personal information" about individuals who obtain financial products or services for personal, family, or household purposes. Subject to certain exceptions allowed by law, the regulations cover information sharing See data conferencing. between financial institutions and non-affiliated third parties. The regulations are effective November 13, 2000, but in order to provide sufficient time for financial institutions to establish policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental and to put in place systems to implement the requirements of the regulations, the deadline for full compliance with the regulations is extended until July 1, 2001. The agencies expect the regulations to be published in the Federal Register. The published regulations may contain nonsubstantive changes not in the version approved by each agency on May 10. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion