March 28, 2006

The Honorable Vito Fossella
Member of Congress
1239 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Fossella:

ACB strongly supports your amendment to H.R. 4127 that would prevent institutions covered by Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) from being subject to duplicative regulations for the protection of sensitive customer information. We sincerely appreciate and applaud your leadership on this important issue.

As you know, Title V of the GLBA requires financial institutions to “insure the security and confidentiality of customer records and information,” and to “protect against unauthorized access to or use of such records or information which could result in substantial harm or inconvenience to any customer.” As regulated entities ACB’s members have been examined for compliance with these requirements for the past five years. Passing H.R. 4127 without your amendment would create a situation where not only community banks, but financial institutions of all types, could be subject to dual regulatory schemes, one implemented by the FTC, and one implemented by their functional regulators. This would be both costly and burdensome.

Your amendment solves this problem by simply clarifying that H.R. 4127 does not apply to those institutions that have had an obligation to protect their customer’s information since the passage of GLBA in 1999. Thank you for your efforts to prevent burdensome and unnecessary new regulations for community banks.

Sincerely,

Robert R. Davis
Executive Vice President and
Managing Director, Government Relations