The insurance industry has joined an appeal of a federal court decision that could raise roadblocks and increase the cost of cross-marketing of products by financial services companies to California residents.
The American Insurance Association and the American Council of Life Insurers has joined a number of other financial services and privacy associations in filing a friend of the court brief in American Bankers Association v. Lockyer, with the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
In their brief, the ACLI and AIA join other financial services industry trade groups in saying that, "… if not reversed, the district court's decision will thwart Congress' intent to develop a single national system for information sharing among their member institutions' affiliates, create an unworkable hodgepodge of inconsistent state and local regulatory regimes, and deprive their members and consumers of the benefits and efficiencies of a single uniform system to govern affiliate-sharing."
This inefficiency would also increase costs to consumers, the associations noted.
The associations are urging the appellate court to uphold the plain meaning of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) amendments enacted in 1996 and reaffirmed in 2003.
The FCRA amendments establish a uniform federal standard for information-sharing among financial institutions, and their affiliates, and preempt state "affiliate-sharing" restrictions.
