An amendment creating an exception to the annual privacy notice delivery requirement for financial institutions has been signed into law by President Obama as part of the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act” (FAST Act).

Section 75001 of the FAST Act, signed into law on December 4, 2015, amends Section 503 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) to add an exception to the annual notice delivery requirement for any financial institution that (1) only shares nonpublic personal information (NPI) as permitted by the GLBA without providing consumers with notice and opt-out rights, and (2) has not changed its policies and practices with regard to disclosing NPI since its most recent disclosure sent to consumers.

Since the CFPB (as well as other federal agencies including the FTC) have issued GLBA regulations, those regulations will need to be amended to reflect the exception created by the FAST Act. Nevertheless, the exception created by the amendment is effective immediately.

For more on the amendment, see our legal alert.