Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “let me reiterate to the Members. Under the Oxley amendment, for the first time we are requiring financial services…”

“let me reiterate to the Members. Under the Oxley amendment, for the first time we are requiring financial services organizations to actually have a privacy policy. It has to be printed, it has to be explained to the customer, the customer has an opportunity to understand exactly what that privacy policy is. It never happened before until this amendment becomes law. Secondly, now that the consumer who is working with this affiliate company understands that policy, he may or may not decide to continue to do business with that company. If he is so concerned that the company he is dealing with is going to be selling that information or leaking that information to other parts of the affiliate, he is going to vote with his feet, he is going to act like an educated consumer, to quote a famous line from Sy Syms. He is going to be an educated consumer, and he is going to go someplace else where his privacy is going to be protected. That is the marketplace working very effectively, I would say to my friend from Massachusetts, not some statute that ties up these financial institutions, costs them millions and millions of dollars which is going to be passed on to the consumer ultimately and is going to be less and less efficient. This is the product that was worked on in a bipartisan way. I ask the Members to support the amendment.”