The Gramm Leach Bliley Act

The Gramm Leach Bliley Act, or GLBA, was enacted in 1999 (15 U.S.C., Subchapter I, § 6801-6809) and allows different types of banking, securities, and insurance companies to merge. However, there are a few provisions that pertain to the daily operations of a debt collector. There are two rules in the law that will affect a collector’s daily operations. First, there is the financial privacy rule. Before this law, a collector could contact another company that the borrower had business with, and obtain personal information regarding the borrower, such as an address, a phone number and so forth. However, with the passing of this law, the financial privacy rule abolished that practice. A collector may no longer share a borrower’s private information with anyone outside of the collector’s organization.

Next is the financial safeguards rule. This means that a company must protect the borrower’s private information. For example, at a collection agency, practical applications of this law reside in rules regarding document shredding, computer security, job site security, and the use of cell phones on the collection floor. A collector must be cognizant of these rules while performing their job function.