I know that Reg. P applies only to consumers, not businesses. What is unclear to me is how guarantors on commercial loans are classified. If a business owner has more than a 10% interest in the business we require the owner to guarantee the loan, which includes providing a Personal Financial Statement, pulling a credit report, etc.

We are also in the middle of negotiating a Joint Marketing Agreement with another financial institution. This other FI wants to start immediately marketing their business credit cards to our business customers, which would include having our FI providing our guarantor's nonpublic personal information to the other FI prior to revising our Privacy Notice to notify customers of our new Joint Marketing Agreement. Once notified our customers can't opt-out of this sharing.

Is this even a problem since the information shared is in regards to a business account? Or since a guarantor's nonpublic personal information is being shared prior to the revision of the Privacy Notice, is this a violation of Reg. P?

None of Reg P equivalent regulations cover business accounts. Your guidelines come from good manners and what you think the guarantor might or might not appreciate...

Prior thread. The credit union version of Reg P considers a guarantor a customer. The parallel regulations promulgated by the bank regulatory agencies do not.

You might want to seriously consider how your business customers or third party guarantors will feel about having their very personal financial information bandied about to third parties to sell things to them.

Just because no law says you cannot do something doesn't make it a good idea. Perhaps some surveys of customers would help gauge the reactions.

That was my thought too - I didn't see that Reg. P prevented the sharing of information, but it just didn't sit well with me. Thanks for the responses!!

Ditto. All regulations can do is establish minimum standards for fairness, accuracy, etc. It's okay if your bank is more honest or more concerned about customer preferences than the law requires.

Note, however, it will set your bank apart from the herd and there will be people you work with who will think you are nuts.