Public comment sought on ways to improve privacy notices.Eight federal regulators, on December 23, 2003, announced an advance notice of proposed rulemaking A notice of proposed rulemaking or NPRM is issued by law when a regulatory agency of the United States Federal Government wishes to add, remove, or change a rule (or regulation) as part of the rulemaking process.Outside the USA. (ANPR) requesting public comment on ways to improve the privacy notices that financial institutions provide to consumers under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act). The ANPR describes various approaches that the agencies could pursue to allow or require financial institutions to provide alternative types of privacy notices that would be more readable and useful to consumers. It also seeks comment on whether differences between federal and state laws pose any special issues for developing a short privacy notice. Section 503 of the GLB Act requires financial institutions to provide a notice to each customer that describes the institution's policies and practices regarding the disclosure to third parties of nonpublic personal information. In 2000, the agencies published consistent final regulations that implement these provisions, including sample clauses that institutions may use in privacy notices. However, the regulations do not prescribe any specific format or standardized wording for privacy notices. The agencies do not propose the adoption of any specific action at this time to improve privacy notices. Instead, the agencies request input on what approaches would be most useful to consumers while taking into consideration the burden on financial institutions. The ANPR was developed jointly by 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 Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal regulatory agency for futures trading, was established by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 (88 Stat. 1389; 7 U.S.C.A. 4a), approved October 23, 1974. , 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 Federal Trade Commission, the National Credit Union Administration The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is responsible for chartering, insuring, supervising, and examining federal credit unions (FCUs) and for administering the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. , 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. , 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. , and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agencies will evaluate the public comments on the ANPR with a view toward developing proposals for appropriate interpretations or amendments to their respective regulations. In the event that the agencies decide to proceed, the agencies expect to do so through proposed rulemaking. The agencies also expect that consumer testing will be a key component in the development of any specific proposal. |
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