Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise many industries; it has been said that “blockchain will do to the financial system what the internet did to media”. Its most famous use is its role as the architecture of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, however it has many other potential uses in the financial sector, for instance in … Continue Reading
By Bruce Bennett, Carlo Kostka, Charlotte Hill, Craig Pollack, Dan Cooper, Gemma Nash, Kristof Van Quathem, Mark Young, and Sophie Bertin The EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which took effect on January 13, 2018, puts an obligation on banks to give Third Party Providers (TPPs) access to a customer’s payment account data, provided the customer expressly … Continue Reading
On December 1, 2016, the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity released its Report on Securing and Growing the Digital Economy. In its Report, the Commission, established in February 2016 by President Obama, provided detailed short- and long-term recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in the public and private sectors. The Commission took a multi-stakeholder approach, emphasizing the … Continue Reading
On September 13, 2016, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a proposed regulation that would require financial service institutions to develop and implement cybersecurity programs to prevent and mitigate cyber-attacks. The proposed regulation will be subject to a 45-day comment period once it is published in the New York State Register. The regulation will become … Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) is soliciting public comments on its Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (“Safeguards Rule”) as part of the systematic review of all FTC rules and guides on a 10-year schedule. The Safeguards Rule was promulgated by the Commission pursuant to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s (“GLBA”) directive for federal agencies to … Continue Reading
By Ciarra Chavarria On June 8, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”) had agreed to pay $1 million as a penalty for charges relating to its “failures to protect customer information.” Morgan Stanley’s settlement with the SEC came several months after a federal court found one … Continue Reading
The EU Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive now looks likely to enter into force in August of this year. Member States will then have 21 months to implement it into national law before the new security and incident notification obligations will start to apply to the following entities: designated* “operators of essential services” within … Continue Reading
By Ani Gevorkian On Monday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule that promotes more effective privacy disclosures and saves the financial services industry around $17 million dollars. The new rule permits financial institutions that restrict data-sharing to post their annual privacy notices online rather than delivering them to customers individually. The rule will … Continue Reading
This week, the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) released a report recommending eleven actions the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) should take to enhance the privacy and security of its ongoing data collections. The report also provides a detailed look at the increasingly large volume of information that CFPB collects, and how the agency’s data collection … Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has approved final orders settling charges against Fandango and Credit Karma that the companies misrepresented the security of their mobile apps and failed to protect the transmission of consumers’ sensitive personal information. The FTC specifically alleged that, although the companies made security promises to consumers that their information was adequately … Continue Reading
Today, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued a staff report examining the consumer-protection implications of popular shopping apps. These services are intended to ease and enhance the shopping experience by allowing consumers to, for example, compare prices in-store across retailers, collect and redeem deals, or pay for purchases while shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. The FTC … Continue Reading
On May 6, 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) proposed a rule to modify the notice provisions of Regulation P, which implements the financial privacy provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”). Regulation P requires financial institutions to deliver an annual privacy notice to customers, which is often accomplished through a direct mailing to the … Continue Reading
In January 2014, a massive data leak of some 104 million credit card accounts shocked South Korea. The number of affected accounts was twice the number of the population of South Korea’s. The incident arose when a temporary employee of a personal credit rating agency that manages personal financial data of customers of three major … Continue Reading
A federal judge on Wednesday reduced a jury’s punitive damages award against Equifax from more than $18 million to $1.62 million, after finding that the jury’s award was unconstitutionally excessive despite Equifax’s “reprehensible” conduct in violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Plaintiff Julie Miller sued Equifax under FCRA for failing to correct mistakes in the … Continue Reading
Routine SEC examinations of investment advisers and investment companies this year will include scrutiny of these entities’ cybersecurity policies, an SEC official told attendees Thursday at a national agency-hosted compliance seminar. The SEC’s Regulation S-P, which implements the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, requires brokers, dealers, investment companies, and registered investment advisers to “adopt policies and procedures … Continue Reading
A number of investigations and inquiries, including a call for a hearing in Congress on December 30, 2013, have been sparked by the announcement by Target Corp. that a massive security breach of approximately 40 million of its customers’ credit and debit card accounts used at brick-and-mortar Target stores occurred between November 27 and extending through … Continue Reading
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing entitled, “What Information Do Data Brokers Have on Consumers, and How Do They Use It?” Committee members expressed interest in bringing about greater transparency to what information is collected by data brokers and how it is used at the hearing, which consisted … Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced today that it will hold a series of three seminars in the spring focused on retail tracking, alternative scoring, and consumer health information. The seminars are designed to shed light on new trends in big data and their impact on consumer privacy, according to the FTC. The seminars will … Continue Reading
On October 23, 2013, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the suspension of an EU-US Agreement on the transfer of financial data for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (the so-called “SWIFT Agreement”). The resolution comes after allegations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has had unauthorized access to EU citizens’ bank … Continue Reading
Recently, a jury in the U.S. District Court for Oregon awarded a plaintiff $18.58 million in compensatory and punitive damages for Equifax’s violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The plaintiff was a co-signor to a loan that was denied by a bank due to the plaintiff’s credit report, which was a “mixed file” that … Continue Reading
Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) agreed to review the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) collection and analysis of consumer credit records in response to a request from Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID). In a letter to the GAO Comptroller General, Sen. Crapo requested that the GAO investigate “CFPB’s data collection to determine its purpose, scope … Continue Reading
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) posted its semi-annual update of its rulemaking agenda for the coming 12-month regulatory cycle, including recently-completed rulemakings. The rulemaking agenda is part of a broader initiative led by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to publish a Unified Agenda of federal regulatory and deregulatory actions across … Continue Reading
By: Kelly Carson Last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an updated “How-To” guide to help businesses and organizations determine whether they are subject to the agency’s Red Flags rule (Rule). Under the Rule, certain entities are required to establish written programs that are aimed at detecting and preventing identity theft. The FTC’s revised … Continue Reading
Earlier this month, Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance regarding consumer report accuracy and the FTC’s efforts to improve accuracy through education and enforcement. Her testimony emphasized the impact that consumer report errors may … Continue Reading
