Federal Reserve Board Regulation P – Privacy of Consumer Financial Information – Overview & Summary of Requirements

• By: Staff Editor
• Date: November 11, 2011

The US Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation P or Privacy of Consumer Financial Information (12 CFR 216) regulates the use of nonpublic personal information about consumers by financial institutions.

• Personally identifiable financial information; and
• Any list, description, or other grouping of consumers (and publicly available information pertaining to them) that is derived using any personally identifiable financial information that is not publicly available.

• Lending, exchanging, transferring, investing for others, or safeguarding money or securities;
• Insuring, guaranteeing, or indemnifying against loss, harm, damage, illness, disability, or death, or providing and issuing annuities, either as principal, agent, or broker; and
• Providing financial advice, underwriting, dealing in, or making a market in securities.

• Must give all its customers initial privacy notices
• Must give initial notices (or short form notices) to consumers who are not its customers only if it intends to disclose nonpublic personal information about those consumers to nonaffiliated third parties
• Must give annual privacy notices to its customers as long as they remain its customers
• Is never required to send annual notices to consumers who are not its customers.

• Opens a credit card account with the institution
• Executes the contract to open a deposit account with the institutions, obtains credit from it, or purchases insurance from it;
• Agrees to obtain financial, economic, or investment advisory services from the institution for a fee; or
• Becomes an institution’s client for the purpose of receiving credit counseling or tax preparation services.

• Categories of nonpublic personal information that is collected by an institution
• Categories of nonpublic personal information that is disclosed by an institution
• The categories of affiliates and nonaffiliated third parties to the information is disclosed
• The categories of nonpublic personal information about former customers that that is disclosed and the categories of affiliates and nonaffiliated third parties to whom this is disclosed
• An explanation of the consumer’s right to opt out of disclosure
• Disclosures that are made under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Policies and practices to protect the confidentiality and security of nonpublic personal information