WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced it has proposed to implement recent congressional legislation allowing certain financial institutions to be exempt from sending annual privacy notices to consumers.
Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), financial institutions must send their customers annual privacy notices that explain whether and how it shares nonpublic personal information. Generally, an institution must notify consumers if it plans to share information with third party sources in ways other than specified by the statute so that consumers can opt out of the sharing.
Congress advanced legislation last December that amended the GLBA, allowing for certain institutions to be exempt from the rule. Those exempt would include institutions that limit sharing of consumer information and have not changed their privacy policies since the last noticed delivered to the consumer.
The CFPB’s current proposal would allow it to begin implementing the legislation. Additionally, it would establish deadlines for institutions resuming annual privacy notices if their practices change and they therefore stop qualifying for the exemption.