Dianne Feinstein: “while I was in California, I met with the CEOs of the major banks. It became very clear to me at that time what they…”

“while I was in California, I met with the CEOs of the major banks. It became very clear to me at that time what they were going to do. They were going to come back here and they were going to get a national standard that clearly preempted the California opt-out. Incidentally, we have modified the amendment I have sent to the desk. I know there was some criticisms of the amendment. We have tightened it up. I think it will stand the test of scrutiny. This amendment protects American consumers' basic privacy rights. It creates a national opt-out standard for affiliate sharing. This would give consumers the choice of whether their personal information can be shared among unrelated companies in a corporate family of companies. Under the amendment, a company would have to notify a consumer that it intended to share the consumer's information with unrelated affiliates and give the consumer the opportunity to opt out of this sharing. If the consumer does nothing, the institution is perfectly free to share the information. This amendment is fully sensitive to the real-life demands of business. Where there is a legitimate business need for the information, this amendment provides exceptions to the opt-out. First and foremost, related affiliates--which are defined as affiliates in the same line of business with the same functional regulator and with the same brand name--are exempt from the opt-out.”