Adding Advertisement to Bank E-Mails
A New Jersey bank asks whether it is allowed to place an advertisement at the end of e-mails sent to anyone its staff is communicating with, such as a vendor, customer, or potential customer.
There is nothing under federal or state law preventing the bank from adding an advertisement to the e-mails it sends out. As best practice, RSK recommends that the bank obtain the recipient’s consent before doing so and that such consent indicate how the recipient might opt-out at a future date.
If the bank sends marketing messages to the recipient’s e-mail address without the recipient’s prior consent, however, such communications will be considered unsolicited. In that case, the requirements of the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, 15 U.S.C. chapter 103, §7701 et seq., must be complied with:
- The “from,” “to,” “reply to,” and routing information—including the originating domain name and e-mail address must be accurate and identify the bank as the initiator of the message;
- The subject line must accurate reflect the content of the message;
- The message must be identified as an advertisement;
- The message must include the bank’s valid physical postal address.
The e-mail message must also include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting e-mail advertisements from the bank in the future. It must be crafted in a way that will be easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. It should give a return e-mail address or another easy inter-net based way for the recipient to communicate his choice to the bank.
Any opt-out mechanism offered by the bank must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after the message is sent out. The bank must then honor any opt-out request within 10 business days after receiving it. The bank cannot charge a fee or require any information identifying the recipient other than an e-mail address. It cannot make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply e-mail or visiting a single page on an internet website as a condition for honoring the opt-out request. FTC, BCP Business Center, “CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business.”
It should also be noted that such advertisements will also be subject to the appropriate requirements of such laws and regulations as Regulation Z for loans, Regulation DD for deposits, the FDIC Official Statement for institutional and deposit advertisements, and the Equal Housing logotype and legend for credit secured by a dwelling.