Add CUSOs to `affiliate' definition in privacy reg, says California CUL

RANCHO CUCOMONGA, Calif. - With the comment period window on NCUA's proposed privacy regulation due to close on March 31, the California Credit Union League sent a letter to the agency urging NCUA to expand its definition of an `affiliate' to include CUSOs and to allow compliance with the new rules to be optional for the first four-and-a-half months to ensure that CUs won't be burdened with the new regulatory compliance in the fourth quarter of this year. The league recommended that a CUSO be only 65%, rather than 100%, owned by credit unions to qualify as an `affiliate.' It also suggested that credit unions be allowed to both include the required annual privacy notice as part of their newsletter to their membership, and to consider a notice mailed to the home of a member as notice to all other members in the same household. Under NCUA's proposed privacy regulations, CUs do not need member permission to share member information with affiliates. Including CUSOs as affiliates `will better enable credit unions to meet the needs of their member-owners through the greater flexibility that the affiliate relationship provides in determining the use of member information," Chatfield offered. Chatfield also urged NCUA to adopt provisions for annual privacy notices similar to those in effect for Truth in Savings, and to create a distinction between information based on a member having a "customer relationship" and an "owner relationship" with the CU.