Ahead of today’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing and tomorrow’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing — both on data privacy — ABA submitted statements for the record urging lawmakers to enact uniform national privacy standards that preempt the existing patchwork of state laws.
Noting that banks are already subject to extensive data privacy and protection laws — including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and others — the association emphasized that “any new Federal privacy law take into consideration existing privacy laws, such as the GLBA, that apply to financial institutions and avoid provisions that duplicate or are inconsistent with those laws.” Having a variety of state laws, the association warned, “makes it very difficult for consumers to understand — and protect — their own privacy rights.”
ABA added that the GLBA “should be considered a tried-and-true model for transparency” for purposes of federal data privacy legislation.
