NCUA Plans New Rules On IdentityTheft

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - (03/25/05) -- NCUA said it plans to adopt similarrules enacted by the banking regulators this week requiring banksto notify customers if their personal accounts have beencompromised by hackers or identity thieves. But the credit unionregulator is expected to take a softer approach, making thenotification a recommendation, not a requirement, according to anagency spokesman. "Most likely it will be on the Board agendawithin the next two months," Nicholas Owens, an NCUA spokesman,told The Credit Union Journal Thursday. Under rules passed thisweek by the FDIC, Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency andOffice of Thrift Supervision breaches of private information mustbe reported to affected customers if the financial institutiondetermines the data has been or could be misused. The rules come ata time of growing concern over incidents of identity theft, likethat at ChoicePoint Inc., in which 145,000 people may have beenaffected by unauthorized access to the company'sdatabase.