The following federal agencies – Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC); Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB); Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS); National Credit Union Administration (NCUA); and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – published final amendments to their respective privacy rules (collectively “privacy rule”) that implement the privacy provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLB Act”). The privacy rule requires financial institutions to provide initial and annual privacy notices to their customers. The federal agencies have amended their respective privacy rule to include a model privacy form (“model form”) that financial institutions may rely on as a safe harbor to provide disclosures under the privacy rule. In addition, the federal agencies are eliminating the safe harbor permitted for privacy notices based on the Sample Clauses currently contained in the privacy rule if the notice is provided after December 31, 2010. While the federal agencies are eliminating the Sample Clauses (effective January 1, 2012) and related safe harbor (effective January 1, 2011), institutions may continue to use notices containing the Sample Clauses, so long as these notices comply with the privacy rule. The federal agencies privacy rule may be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, respectively, at: for national banks regulated by the OCC, 12 CFR Part 40, §§40.1 – 40.18; for state member banks regulated by the FRB, Part 216, §§216.1 – 216.18; for state nonmember banks regulated by the FDIC, Part 332, §§332.1 – 332.18; for savings associations regulated by the OTC, Part 573, §§573.1 – 573.18; for credit unions regulated by the NCUA, Part 716, §§716.1 – 716.18; and for all other mortgage lenders and brokers regulated by the FTC, 16 CFR Part 313, §§313.1 – 313.18. The federal agencies have also provided on each of their Websites a link to an “Online Form Builder” so that financial institution can readily create a unique, customized privacy notice using the model form template. The key features of the model privacy form are briefly summarized as follows: Model Privacy Form ● Use of the model form is voluntary; institutions are not required to use it. ● The model form has two pages and together, pages one and two address the legal requirements of applicable Federal financial privacy laws. A specific paper size is not mandated as long as the paper is in portrait orientation and sufficient to accommodate minimum font size, spacing, and content requirements. ● The model form may be incorporated into another document, but it must be done so in a way that meets all the requirements of the privacy rule and the model form Instructions
