We have a number of customers that have signed up for e-statements. This year, we want to deliver the annual privacy to these customers electronically. I want to do the following; as with e-statments we send a notice via e-mail that their statement is now available on our secure site. Customer goes to that site and clicks on his/her statement. With the privacy notice can we:

1. send e-mail stating "your annual privacy notice is now available for review" or something to that effect. the customer would then go to our secure site and click on a button "annual privacy notice". Done....right???

If you included e-privacy-notices in your customer agreement,then you can proceed as you and the customer have agreed. Unless the privacy notices are included in an agreement of some type (doesn't have to be ESIGN-compliant), Sec. 216.9(a) prohibits e-delivery.

We used the standard verbage provided and used by most banks wherein the people click on in agreement to accept all "notices"....I think that should be OK, right?

P.S. Does my description of how we want it to work sound correct?

It has to work the way the customer agreed it would work.

Be sure to look at 216.9(c) for delivery via your web site. If your customer agrees to receive that posted notice on your web site, put the current notice there, keep it there and keep it current and you won't have to send it annually on paper or bits and bytes.

Thanks...in terms of the notification e-mail message, do banks typically say something along the range of>>>>our annula privacy notice is available for review. You can check it on our site, under the tab privacy or in our secure trans site, under the tab privacy".....

They still have to agree to receive the notice there, so a statement as to where they should look isn't an agreement.

http://www.bankersonline.com/regs/216/216-9.html

That's how we handle our notifications. Keep in mind that if you're posting the notice on your website and directing the customer to the site to retrieve it, the notice needs to be made available for 90 days. Of course, Andy's above mentioned "post it, keep it there, keep it current", suggestion is the easiest and most efficient way to ensure compliance with the availability requirements.

JAc, are you saying you keep the Privacy Notice up for 90 days? The reg says "continuously."

Then I may have gotten my wires crossed with a different requirement.