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GCN Home > March 6, 2000 issue

E-signature bills concern Fed

The Federal Reserve Board has asked Congress to let it review proposed electronic signature legislation to ensure a final version won’t preclude the Fed’s oversight of financial disclosures to consumers.

Several existing statutes mandate that the Fed set rules for delivering such disclosures. Fed officials said the House’s version of the bill, HR 1714, could prevent the Fed’s Board of Governors from issuing uniform rules for electronic delivery of the disclosures.

The House’s Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act is supposed to ease the use of electronic records and signatures in interstate and foreign commerce. It would give electronic records and digital signatures the same legal credence as paper transactions.

The Senate version of the bill, S 761, addresses only the use of digital signatures, not electronic records.

The House and Senate passed the bills in November and plan to convene a conference committee soon to work out a final version.

—Shruti Daté, Christopher J. Dorobek, Susan M. Menke and Michael Cheek



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