On December 4, President Obama signed the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act’’ or the ‘‘FAST Act.” In addition to providing for highway and transportation spending, section 750001 of the FAST Act amended Section 503 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) by eliminating under certain circumstances the GLBA requirement that financial institutions provide annual privacy notices (new GLBA Section 503(f)). 

The GLBA amendments provide that financial institutions are no longer required to provide annual privacy notices unless there has been a change in the institution’s privacy policies or the institution shares nonpublic personal information with outside parties for marketing purposes. Investment companies, registered and private fund advisors and broker-dealers, among others, are considered financial institutions for GLBA purposes.

The FAST Act also provides a new Securities Act of 1933 (1933 Act) Section 4(a)(7) exemption from registration for private offers and re-sales by non-issuer sellers of privately offered securities to accredited investors so long as various requirements are met. In addition, the FAST Act also requires that the SEC modernize and simplify disclosure requirements under Reg. S-K and provide a summary page for Form 10-K. The FAST Act also amends the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Advisers Act) to simplify registration requirements for advisors to small business investment companies.

Since the FAST Act does not state a date for the effectiveness for the amendments to the GLBA, the 1933 Act or the Advisers Act, these amendments became effective upon the President’s December 4 signing.

The FAST Act can be found here.