The comment period on the proposed Model Form runs until May 29th. After that, the agencies will put together the comments that they all have received and jointly meet to agree on how to proceed. While there is no certain time frame for this decision process, it generally takes at least several months and, in a case like this where many regulators have to agree, usually much longer. They also said in the proposed regulation that they will do additional consumer testing before finalizing the form, which would take some additional time. The final version would then have to be published in the Federal Register before it is effective. It is very unlikely that all that would happen very quickly. So, someone that needs to mail an annual notice in June will almost certainly have to mail their annual notices well before the new model forms are final.
Under the terms of the proposal, privacy notices delivered under the current rules will be covered by the safe harbor for compliance for at least one year after the date the final version comes out. So you would not have to re-send your annual privacy notice if you mail it in June of this year. In fact, under the proposed rule, any institution that sends their annual privacy notice anytime within the first year after the effective date of the new form would not have to re-send annual notices. In addition, the current notice would be usable for opening new accounts until one year after the date that the new form is final. Institutions would have the option of going to the new form after it is final, but would not lose the safe harbor protection for at least a year.