United States of America: Announced SEC proposal to amend Regulation S-P to enhance protection of customer information

On 15 March 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced proposed amendments to Regulation S-P (Privacy of Consumer Financial Information and Safeguarding Personal Information) to enhance the protection of customer information by requiring broker-dealers, investment companies, registered investment advisers, and transfer agents to adopt written policies and procedures for incident response programs to address unauthorised access to or use of customer information. The proposal would also require the institutions to provide notice, as soon as practicable, to individuals affected by certain data breaches that could put them at risk of identity theft or other harm. Furthermore, under the proposal the protections of the safeguards and disposal rules would be extended to both non-public personal information that an institution collects about its own customers and to non-public personal information that an institution receives about customers of other financial institutions. The proposed amendments will be subject to a consultation once published in the Federal Register.