My Bank Should Protect My Identity
December 03, 2007 heath
In response to Financial Institutions needing to implement an Identity Theft Prevention Program banks should really offer up some type of program with identity theft protection companies. It makes perfect sense to me. Why not have my fraud and credit monitoring associated with my bank account? My bank could be my one stop shop for all my financial needs, including credit monitoring. With all these new banking products coming out like high interest checking and remote deposit capture, banks could also offer a checking account program that monitors my credit and other accounts as well. In addition to being able to offer customers an excellent product, banks could also comply with the new Identity Theft Prevention Program requirements. These requirements state that banks should implement policies and procedures to protect identities as well as educate customers on how to protect their personal information. Well, how better to secure customer identities than a $1 Million Guarantee.
January 17th, 2008 at 03:39 PM I agree that identity theft is a huge and growing problem, but making banks responsible for preventing identity theft will not accomplish this feat. It will, however, serve to further increase the regulatory burden on banks and raise costs to consumers, while creating a new growth industry and diverting funds to insurers. Yes, your bank could be a one stop shop for financial services, including credit monitoring, but the decision to offer such services should be left to bank management, not mandated by federal regulation.