NEGATIVE — CONSUMER/INTERNET — BANKING — GENERAL� 413

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS WILL RESPECT PRIVACY TO KEEP CUSTOMERS

William W. Streeter, Editor-in-Chief, ABA Banking Journal, March, 1999; Pg. 15 TITLE: Can privacy survive in a database world? // acs-VT2001

The advantage comes from the fact that customers will stop doing business with companies that play games with personal privacy and shift business to companies that respect it and give customers control over their own data. This takes more effort than some marketers are willing to take. But for banks in particular it is vital to retain customer trust and to fend off attempts to impose sweeping new regulations, which will be far more costly than any policy of their own devising. Prudence (and, in some cases, the law) dictates that customers be clearly informed what options they have for controlling use of their personal data.

WE DO NOT NEED NEW FINANCIAL PRIVACY LEGISLATION

William W. Streeter, Editor-in-Chief, ABA Banking Journal, March, 1999; Pg. 15 TITLE: Can privacy survive in a database world? // acs-VT2001

Sweeping new laws we don't need. Almost a dozen federal statutes relate to financial privacy, chief among them the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In addition, privacy issues receive intense regulatory and media scrutiny.

PRIVACY CONTROLS IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR THREATEN QUALITY OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

EDMUND SANDERS, TIMES STAFF WRITER, Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2000, SECTION: Part A; Page 23; TITLE: PANEL OKS FINANCIAL PRIVACY BILL// acs-VT2001

Banks and business groups oppose the bill, warning that it could backfire on consumers by restricting the ability of banks to offer products and discounts.

"We want to preserve the consumer benefits that arise from a free flow of information," said John Dugan, a Washington attorney representing the industry's new lobbying group, the Financial Services Coordinating Council.

PRIVACY IN BANKING IS AN ISSUE WHICH WILL BE AROUND FOR A LONG TIME NO MATTER WHAT

Robert O'Harrow Jr., The Washington Post, October 31, 1999, SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. H01 TITLE: Reinventing the Bank; Consumer Advocates Fear Pitches by Companies Will Breach Personal Privacy // acs-EE2001

It may be years before it's clear which side is right on the privacy issue. But there's no doubt it has become a central theme--and will one remain one for a long time--in the debate over the future of the nation's financial services industry.