Privacy Notices under the Gramm—Leach—Bliley Act

Abstract On November 12, 1999, President Clinton signed the Financial Services Modernization Act, more commonly known as Gramm—Leach—Bliley Act (hereinafter referred to as the GLB Act).1 The GLB Act removed the laws enacted in the 1930s that prohibited firms from engaging in both commercial and investment banking. Legal restrictions had long blocked mergers among banks, brokerage houses, insurance companies, and other financial entities. The GLB Act permitted the creation of new kinds of “financial supermarkets.”2 Such organizations can now offer a full range of financial products, including insurance and securities underwriting, merchant banking, and real estate development and investment.3