America’s Credit Unions opposes the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), it wrote to House Energy and Commerce leaders Tuesday prior to committee markup of the bill. America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle applauded the bipartisan efforts to craft comprehensive legislation but noted major credit union concerns had not been addressed from discussion draft to the introduced bill.
America’s Credit Unions believes the following tenets must be part of any new national data privacy law:
- A recognition of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) standards and accompanying regulations in place for financial institutions (the bill does not have an entity-level exemption for those in compliance with GLBA);
- A strong federal preemption from the myriad of various state laws for those in compliance with national privacy and GLBA standards (the bill has a long list of carveouts for existing state laws); and
- Protection from frivolous lawsuits created by a private right of action (the bills’ private right of action contains exceptions that could lead to frivolous legal action).
America’s Credit Unions also signed onto a joint letter with other financial trades association calling for an exemption for all financial institutions subject to GLBA, and one with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposing the legislation for creating a new private right of action that could result in increased litigation.
