Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Document Management and Compliance

What is Gramm-Leach-Bliley and how does it apply to Document Management?

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, or GLBA, was put into place to allow consolidation in the banking industry. It provided rules for the combining of Commercial and Investment Banking. The main crux of the Act are provisions to protect the private financial information of consumers. The two main regulations governing the protection are the Financial Privacy Rule and the Safeguards Rule. The regualtions apply to many different types of financial institutions, including: securities firms, insurance companies, brokerages and banks.

Compliance with GLBA is manadatory, and below is a summary of the two mainregulations:

Financial Privacy Rule

The Privacy Rule governs the disclosure and collection of private financial information. It requires Privacy Notifications be submitted to the consumer that discloses how information will be used and/or shared. The consumer has the right to opt out and not provide the required information.

Safeguards Rule

The Safeguards Rule requires a written plan to protect and secure the private information held by an institution. The plan requires overall management of the safeguards through organizational structure, risk management plans for each department that handles the private information, plans for monitoring and suditing complaince and the ability to manage the overall collection, usage, storage, and distribution.

So how do Electronic Document Management Systems or Electronic Content Management Systems help with this daunting task?

EDMS or ECM systems can provide the oversight for managing private information through:

• Enhanced Security and Access Controls
• Centralized auditing
• Centralized, rather than distributed storage
• The ability to control usage and distribution

For some further reading on GLBA go to www.scanguru.com and read the compliance section, or click on the link below to go to the GLBA Compliance Links Page:

GLBA Compliance Page