what is the gramm leach bliley act of 1999 glba 
the gramm leach bliley act of 1999 glba was a bi partisan regulation under president bill clinton passed by congress on november 12 1999 the glba was an attempt to update and modernize the financial industry the glba is most well known as the repeal of the glass steagall act of 1933 which stated that commercial banks were not allowed to offer financial services like investments and insurance related services as part of normal operations 1understanding the gramm leach bliley act of 1999 glba due to the remarkable losses incurred as a result of 1929 s black tuesday and thursday the glass steagall act was originally created to protect bank depositors from additional exposure to risk associated with stock market volatility 2 as a result for many years commercial banks were not legally allowed to act as brokers 3 since many regulations have been instituted since the 1930s to protect bank depositors glba was created to allow these financial industry participants to offer more services glba was passed on the heels of commercial bank citicorp merger with the insurance firm travelers group this led to the formation of the conglomerate citigroup which offered not only commercial banking and insurance services but also lines of business related to securities its brands at this stage included citibank smith barney primerica and travelers 4 citicorp merger was a violation of the then existing glass steagall act as well as the bank holding company act of 1956 the act is also known as the gramm leach bliley financial services modernization act to allow the merger to take place the u s federal reserve gave citigroup a temporary waiver in september 1998 a precursor to congress s passage of glba 5 moving forward other similar mergers would be fully legal repealing glass steagall also removed the ban of simultaneous service by any officer director or employee of a securities firm as an officer director or employee of any member bank 6the gramm leach bliley act and consumer privacythe gramm leach bliley act also required financial institutions offering consumers loan services financial or investment advice and or insurance to fully explain their information sharing practices to their customers firms must allow their customers the option to opt out if they do not want their sensitive information shared 7while many consider critical information such as bank balances and account numbers to be confidential in reality this data is consistently bought and sold by banks credit card companies and others gramm leach bliley required limited privacy protections against such personal data sales along with pretexting obtaining personal information through false pretenses 