FACTA's Red Flag Guidelines

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Question:

Have the red flag guidelines under the FACT Act gone into effect yet, or is the law still a request? <table width=200 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 border=0 bordercolor=cc0000 bgcolor="#F7F7D2" align="right"><tr><td class="text"><a href="http://www.bollearningconnect.com/"><img src="http://www.bankersonline.com/images/lc_tiny_frontpage.gif" border="0" alt=""></a><a href="http://calendar.bollearningconnect.com/main.php?view=event&eventid=1147370597021">FACTA: Red Flag ID Theft Guidelines June 16 </a><em>Presented by Mary Beth Guard and Jack Holzknecht</em>At long last, the proposed rules on Identity Theft Red Flags and Address Discrepancies under the FACT Act have been released. These joint regulations will require each financial institution to establish reasonable policies and procedures for implementing the guidelines, plus credit and debit card issuers will need to have compliant procedures for assessing the validity of address changes, and those who use credit reports will need policies and procedures to use when they receive a notice of address discrepancy from a consumer reporting agency.</td></tr></table>

Answer:

The Red Flag guidelines have not yet gone into effect, but FINALLY they are being proposed! On May 10, 2006, the FDIC Board approved a draft of the proposed rules and the other regulatory agencies are expected to quickly follow suit so the proposal can be published jointly. Of course, as with any administrative rulemaking (other than certain emergencies), there is a comment period which will be a 60-day period from when the proposal is published in the Federal Register. After comments have been received, they will need to be reviewed and considered. Then, a final rule will emerge and a deadline for compliance will be set. By the way, happy reading! The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is 115 pages long in the double-spaced format.

First published on BankersOnline.com 5/15/06