House Passes Paulsen’s ‘Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act’
MN Congressman’s bill to eliminate duplicative paperwork, reduce confusion for consumers passes House on voice vote

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 14, 2010
CONTACT: Luke Friedrich (952) 405-8510 / Andrew Foxwell (202)503-7809

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bipartisan bill authored by Minnesota Third District Congressman Erik Paulsen to eliminate confusion for consumers and end duplicative and bureaucratic paperwork requirements for community banks and other financial institutions. The Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act (H.R. 3506) is co-sponsored by Representatives Dennis Moore (D-KS) and Peter Roskam (R-IL) and was passed by voice vote.

“This common-sense bill will eliminate red tape and bureaucracy, while also protecting consumers from confusion over their privacy policies when nothing has changed,” Paulsen said.  “This bill maintains current privacy protections, while simultaneously cutting down on costs and duplicative work that are harmful to both consumers and financial institutions like community banks.  I was proud to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this bill.”

Currently, privacy notices are required to be sent annually, even if policies have not changed and companies have not shared a customer’s financial information.  The Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act will provide an exemption from annual privacy notice updates for institutions that do not share non-public customer information with unaffiliated third parties or make changes to their privacy policies.  Privacy requirements that financial institutions must follow and provide to consumers when they open an account remain unchanged. 

Video of Paulsen’s floor remarks on this legislation is available HERE.  

For more information on Paulsen’s work in Congress, please visit www.paulsen.house.gov.   

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