OTS and FDIC Issue Proposed Privacy Regulations
As discussed in last week’s Alert, the federal functional regulators are required to issue regulations implementing Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act regarding privacy of personal financial information. Last week’s Alert summarized the principal provisions of the proposed privacy regulations issued by the FRB and the OCC. Comparable proposals were issued last week by the OTS and FDIC. As noted in the prior summary, the only substantive difference among the proposals of the banking agencies concerns the definition of "publicly available information." The FRB’s definition requires that a financial institution actually obtain the information from a public source before it can be treated as publicly available (and thus not restricted). The OTS and FDIC decided to follow the example of the OCC by including an alternative to the definition provided by the FRB. The alternative would treat as publicly available any information that a
