New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 11 - INSURANCE › Chapter XIX - Privacy Of Consumer Financial and health Information › Part 420 - Privacy Of Consumer Financial And Health Information › General Provisions › Section 420.0 - Preamble

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) Title V of the
				  Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) (15 U.S.C.
				  6801, et seq.) requires financial
				  institutions, including insurers, to protect the privacy of consumers and
				  customers. Title V of GLBA requires that State insurance authorities establish
				  appropriate consumer privacy standards for insurance providers.
(b) Section 505(c) (15
				  U.S.C. section 6805 [c]) of GLBA provides:
				  "If a State insurance authority fails to adopt regulations to carry out this
				  subtitle, such State shall not be eligible to override, pursuant to section
				  47(g)(2)(B)(iii) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C.
				  1831 x), the insurance customer protections
				  prescribed by a Federal banking agency under section 45(a) of such
				  Act."
(c) Sections 502 and 503 of
				  GLBA (15
				  U.S.C. sections 6802 and
				  6803) list specific protections that regulators shall implement. These include
				  requirements that financial institutions maintain a privacy policy that is
				  clearly communicated to consumers and customers, that no nonpublic personal
				  financial information be disclosed to nonaffiliated third parties unless a
				  consumer has been given a chance to "opt out" of having his or her information
				  disclosed, and that no specific account information be given to direct
				  marketing firms. The act also provides numerous exceptions to specific consumer
				  protections.
(d) This Part provides
				  that a licensee subject to the supervision of the Superintendent of Insurance
				  who, in the conduct of the business of insurance in this State, violates the
				  provisions of this Part shall be deemed to have engaged in an unfair method of
				  competition or an unfair or deceptive act and practice in the conduct of the
				  business of insurance in this State. Such act shall be deemed to be a trade
				  practice constituting a determined violation, as defined in section 2402 (c)  of the Insurance
				  Law, in violation of section 2403 of such law.
(e) In addition to the foregoing, the
				  Superintendent of Insurance possesses the authority pursuant to sections 201 and
				  301  of the Insurance Law to promulgate a
				  regulation to delineate the responsibility of an Insurance Department licensee
				  regarding the privacy of consumer and customer financial and health information
				  which the licensee receives. Such authority is an exercise of the
				  superintendent's power to promulgate regulations to effectuate any power given
				  to the superintendent under the Insurance Law, including the provisions
				  regarding transactions within a holding company system affecting controlled
				  insurers (section 1505); relations and transactions between parent and
				  subsidiary companies for life and property/casualty insurers (sections 1608 and
				  1712); minimum standards in the form, content, and sale of accident and health
				  insurance policies and contracts (section 3217); and, as noted above, unfair
				  methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts and practices (article
				  24).