Credit Reporting Services

Published by the New York Governor's Bureau, Andrew M. Cuomo, on December 12, in a news announcement, the rules required credit bureaus to adhere to, among other things, the following: respond within 10 working days to a request for information from the Department to investigate, mediate or mitigate a consumer's claim of ID fraud; designate special points of contacts to support the Department's efficient management of the programme; and charge any charges associated with proposed goods and services sold to discourage ID fraud.

Consumers' credit agents are obliged to respect these rules with immediate effect. The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has taken several actions to counter cyber security fears, as already discussed by InfoBytes, among them an 18 September notice that the state would extend cyber security defaults to credit bureaus.

According to the proposal, credit bureaus would be subjected to a conformity check, would be obliged to first enroll with NYDFS and would have to adhere to cyber security rules from 4 April 2018 according to a tiered regulatory plan.

Expert to launch credit information services for individuals

In the UK, Experian has set up a credit information surveillance agency to warn individuals when potentially deceptive credit activities have taken place on their behalf. CreditExpert Services provides on-line user accounts with full credit reports so that they can follow changes at any time and see who is browsing their reports.

As Experian says, the number of ID scams that have been registered has multiplied by two in the last two years, costing the UK 1.3 billion pounds a year. The system cost 49.99 pounds per year and will send an email or text messaging to a subscriber when important changes have been made to a credit history.

Once a notification is sent, the user can view his or her credit histories via www.creditexpert.co.uk. each time. The subscription contains a quaterly on-line new type character with current articles and contributions to personal financial questions. A Member Centre on-line provides easy on-line membership to computers that help with making financial choices (e.g. how to compute how a changing interest rates can impact your payments).

You can also direct questions to a special support staff, either free of charge or on-line.