FACT act compliance deadline looming.(TRADELINE)(Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act)

Identity theft and the protection of customer information has become an increasingly vital issue for businesses in recent years. The U.S. government has acted swiftly in the face of massive private information heists perpetrated by hackers that have put millions of customers' proprietary information at risk and have severely damaged the reputations of corporations.

Last November, a number of new regulations that required financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement identity theft programs under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT) were adopted by several federal agencies. Sections 114 and 315 of FACT Act, referred to as "Red Flag Rules," had an effective date of January 1, 2008, with an upcoming mandatory compliance by November 1, 2008.

The three new regulations require that, as mentioned, all creditor and financial institutions implement an Identity Theft Prevention program for both new and existing accounts. The program must include a series of reasonable practices for detecting, preventing and mitigating identity theft. The second rule requires that users of consumer credit reports respond to Notices of Address Discrepancies. And the third part of the regulation requires that issuers of debit or credit ...