Bryan, Shelby and Markey push for privacy protections

Nevada Democrat Richard Bryan announced Wednesday formation of a coalition pushing for stronger financial privacy laws.

Bryan was joined by fellow Senator, Alabama Republican Richard Shelby, and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in presenting the coalition which will include groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to Eagle Forum in backing what they described as a financial services modernization bill.

"To properly protect the personal financial privacy rights of consumers, we would require financial institutions to first get the permission of their customer before they could reveal that information to affiliates or independent third parties," said Bryan. "These changes would provide consumers with the kind of enhanced protection that every consumer should expect."

The three said existing law provides almost no protection for financial privacy. They agreed that the modernization bill is needed and long overdue in the banking industry. But they said that must be tempered by protection for the consumer.