A local newspaper has asked to insert a postcard in our monthly customer statements. Customers who return the postcard directly to the newspaper would receive a free 8-week trial subscription to the paper in the bank's name. The bank's name is mentioned on the postcard in reference to a "special offer for our customers". The bank is not paying for the production of this postcard.

The paper is not being given a list of customers and the bank will be handling the distribution of the postcards in the statements.

Do I need to be worried about this? (Marketing always scares me.)

Thanks for any feedback.

Should not be a problem, unless your local newspaper is the equivalent of the National Enquirer - then you might have a little bit of reputational risk.

If the customer returns the postcard, won't the newspaper know he/she is a customer of the bank? Could this be considered violating the privacy law?

That is purely at the discretion of the customer and falls outside the realm of the privacy regulations.

Well, after my off the cuff answer, I guess I have to qualify my answer slightly and that a bank should follow the guidelines as outlined in Privacy Q&A published in December 2001.

J.3. Each month I mail account statements to my customers. May I include marketing materials for a third party vendor’s products in my mailings to my customers? I do not have a joint marketing agreement under § 216.13 with the vendor.

Yes. However, you must be careful not to facilitate your customer’s unwitting disclosure of his or her nonpublic personal information to the vendor by virtue of a response to the marketing materials. For example, the vendor may have printed a reference code on its marketing materials that indicates that the offer for that product was sent to your customers who share certain financial characteristics. From this code, the vendor would be able to determine that the individual who responds to the marketing materials that you delivered is your customer or holds certain kinds of assets. In that case, you would have disclosed nonpublic personal information about the customer to the vendor.

To comply with the Privacy Rule under these circumstances, you must either describe these types of marketing arrangements in your initial, annual, or revised privacy notice and provide your customer with a reasonable opportunity to opt out or obtain your customer’s specific consent to such arrangements. Alternatively, you may structure the marketing materials so your customer knows that by responding he or she would be disclosing certain categories of nonpublic personal information about himself or herself.

If I were you I would charge the newspaper a fee for using my bank mailing list. They would have to pay for using other lists.