March 12, 2013
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Re: Pass H.R. 749, the Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act
Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi:
I am writing on behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), the only trade association that exclusively represents the interests of our nation’s federal credit unions in support of H.R. 749, the Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act. The bill would amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act) to provide an exception to the annual privacy notice requirement, and was recently introduced by Representatives Blaine Luetkemeyer and Brad Sherman.
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (P.L. 106-102), enacted in 1999, requires financial institutions and a wide variety of other businesses to issue privacy disclosure notices to consumers. The notices must be "clear and conspicuous" and disclose in detail the institution’s privacy policies if it shares customers’ non-public personal information with affiliates or third parties. Such disclosures must take place when a customer relationship is first established and annually as long as the relationship continues. The law also requires telling existing and potential customers of their right to opt out of sharing non-public personal information with third parties.
The privacy notice, for most institutions, is readily available for view online, as well as available at branch locations for consumers to acquire if they so wish. The exception will allow credit unions to focus their resources on providing low cost financial services to their members without disturbing consumer privacy policy availability. The staff resources and money wasted to send the required notice to more than 95 million members every year are resources that could better serve them in the form of home and car loans or tuition for college.
As many institutions and consumers are earnestly attempting to “go green”, the current requirement stands in stark contrast. The exception would save credit unions valuable staff resources, lower the cost of financial services, and reverse the negative environmental impact caused by such a requirement, while causing no harm to consumers. Without relief, the costs to credit unions and the costs of their financial services to members will continue to rise, and the environment will continue to be depleted of its resources.
Accordingly, on behalf of our members, we respectfully request that you consider aiding Representatives Luetkemeyer’s and Sherman’s efforts by supporting H.R. 749. As you are aware, similar legislation passed the House last year by voice vote. Thank you for your consideration and should you have any questions or require any additional information please contact me or Chad Adams, NAFCU’s Associate Director of Legislative Affairs, at 703-842-2265 or cadams@nafcu.org.
Sincerely,
Brad Thaler
Vice President of Legislative Affairs
cc: Members of the House of Representatives