Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Compliance

The Financial Modernization Act of 1999, also known as the “Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act” or GLB Act, includes provisions to protect consumers’ personal financial information held by financial institutions. There are three principal parts to the privacy requirements: 1) The Financial Privacy Rule, 2) The Safeguards Rule and 3) Pretexting Provisions.

The Safeguards Rule requires all financial institutions to design, implement and maintain safeguards to protect customer information. The Safeguards Rule applies not only to financial institutions that collect information from their own customers, but also to financial institutions – such as credit reporting agencies – that receive customer information from other financial institutions.

 

As a result of the Safeguards Rule it is extremely important that financial institutions develop data backup policies. Online data backup can help your organization meet Gramm-Leach-Bliley requirements.

The GLB Act applies to, but is not limited to, the following services:

• Lending
• Brokering or servicing any type of consumer loan
• Transferring or safeguarding money
• Preparing individual tax returns
• Providing financial advice or credit counseling
• Providing residential real estate settlement services
• Collecting consumer debts and an array of other activities