Joint Trades Comment to California Attorney General re CCPA

Ms. Lisa B. Kim, Privacy Regulations Coordinator
California Office of the Attorney General
300 South Spring Street, First Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90013
[email protected]

Dear Ms. Kim

The American Bankers Association (ABA), the California Bankers Association (CBA), the California Mortgage Bankers Association (California MBA), and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) appreciate the opportunity to submit written comments in response to the revised rulemaking undertaken by the California Department of Justice pertaining to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA). We appreciate revisions that have been made to the initial draft regulations released on October 11, 2019, that are responsive to the comments we submitted in our December 6, 2019, letter.

ABA is the voice of the nation’s trillion banking industry, which is composed of small, regional and large banks. Together, America’s banks employ more than 2 million men and women, safeguard trillion in deposits and extend more than trillion in loans.

CBA is a division of the Western Bankers Association, one of the largest banking trade associations and regional educational organizations in the United States. CBA advocates on legislative, regulatory and legal matters on behalf of banks doing business in the state of California.

California MBA is a California corporation operating as a non-profit association that serves members of the real estate finance industry doing business in California. California MBA’s membership consists of approximately three hundred companies representing a full spectrum of residential and commercial lenders, servicers, brokers, and a broad range of industry service providers.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is the national association representing the real estate finance industry, an industry that employs more than 280,000 people in virtually every community in the country. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the association works to ensure the continued strength of the nation’s residential and commercial real estate markets; to expand homeownership; and to extend access to affordable housing to all Americans. MBA promotes fair and ethical lending practices and fosters professional excellence among real estate finance employees through a wide range of educational programs and a variety of publications. Its membership of over 2,200 companies includes all elements of real estate finance: mortgage companies, mortgage brokers, commercial banks, thrifts, REITs, Wall Street conduits, life insurance companies, and others in the mortgage lending field.

As your office prepares to issue final regulations in accordance with the CCPA, we respectfully urge that you consider the following requests to clarify aspects of the proposed regulations and the CCPA. While our letter makes several specific observations regarding the revised regulations, as a general matter, we urge that final regulations avoid inconsistencies with the CCPA, such as the provision in Section 999.315, requiring companies to provide a method of consumer opt-out that does not exist within the current law, and, moreover, that businesses not be required to provide notifications that may confuse consumers and obfuscate relevant information.

The requests outlined below should not be considered an effort to undermine the CCPA but are rather intended to assist in clarifying aspects of the law to better facilitate compliance by financial institutions.

Download the letter to read our full comments.