What is Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) was enacted by the United States government in 1999. GLBA, also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, protects the privacy and security of private financial information that financial institutions collect, hold, and process. The privacy component of this act requires financial institutions to provide customers with an annual notice of their privacy practices, and to provide them the option to direct financial institutions not to share such information.

The safeguards component of the regulation requires financial institutions to establish a comprehensive security program to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the private financial information in their records. Availability might refer to who can access the information, or the availability of a service or function.