WASHINGTON—Both NAFCU and CUNA will be on Capitol Hill today as two regulatory relief bills will be marked up by the House Financial Services Committee.
H.R. 2205, the Data Security Act of 2015, and H.R. 2287, the National Credit Union Administration Budget Transparency Act, are set to be marked up by the committee at 2 p.m. ET.
Introduced by Reps. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) and John Carney (D-DE), H.R. 2205 would establish uniform national standards for protecting consumer payment and personal information while recognizing credit unions’ compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Under H.R. 2205, retailers would be held responsible for implementing security measures to protect consumer data.
Under the bill, entities must:
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Develop and maintain an effective information security program tailored to the complexity and scope of its operations, and the sensitivity of its data.
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Oversee service providers with access to customer information, including requiring service providers by contract to take appropriate steps to protect the security and confidentiality of this information.
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Train staff to prepare and implement its information security program.
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Test key controls, systems and procedures of its information security program.
- Adjust its information security program to reflect the results of its ongoing risk assessment.
“It’s important to note that the bill recognizes that credit unions and banks are already subject to very strong federal standards on data protection, so the bill does not apply an additional standard to them,” said CUNA Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan.
Donovan reminded that movement from Washington here is long overdue, noting the genesis of the data security legislation is the Target breach.
“From the outset NAFCU has been leading the charge for greater national data security and breach notification standards for retailers,” said NAFCU Communications Director Patty Briotta. “The day—December 19, 2013— Target acknowledged the breach NAFCU sent its first letter to Congress on this issue.”
Click here for NAFCU's letter to the HFSC on H.R. 2205 in advance of the bill's mark-up and here for a joint trade association letter to the HFSC on the legislation.
NCUA Budget Bill
H.R. 2287 – introduced by Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)--would require NCUA to publish a draft of its budget in the Federal Register and hold a public hearing to garner comments from the public.
“We continue to be dismayed that the agency’s budget continues to increase while other banking regulator budgets have been reduced,” said Donovan. “Further, recent steps to delegate authority for the Overhead Transfer Rate to the Office of Examination and Insurance raised additional concerns regarding the transparency of NCUA’s budget.”
Click here for CUNA's letter to the HFSC on H.R. 2287 and H.R. 2205 in advance of the bills' mark-ups.
Briotta shared similar concerns, adding that NAFCU has “steadfastly pushed for NCUA to provide greater transparency and accountability around their budget.”