WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D) have introduced a bill aimed at alleviating the regulatory burden related to privacy notices.
Backed by CUNA, the Privacy Notice Modernization Act, S. 423, would amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to require credit unions to send privacy notices to existing members only when the credit union changes its privacy policy.
The privacy policy would also be available to members on demand and on the credit unions' website, CUNA added.
"The fact is that an annual privacy notice requirement is unnecessary, costly and confusing to our members," said CUNA's president and CEO, Jim Nussle, in a statement. "Requiring the notice to be mailed only when the policy is changed will make the notice more meaningful to credit unions and their members. I thank Senators Moran and Heitkamp for their leadership on this important issue."
The new legislation is a companion bill to one introduced earlier this year in the House by U.S. Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), called the Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act.
CUNA noted that this legislation "enjoyed broad bipartisan support" in the past, having passed the House by voice vote in both the 112th and 113th Congresses. In the last Congress, the bill had 76 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate.
