Senate Hearing Postponed

The Senate Banking Committee, scheduled to hear from ChoicePoint and Bank of America executives, was postponed due to votes on the bankruptcy bill.

Key quotes:

"In my mind, what bank robbery was to the Depression Era, identity theft is to the Information Age," Schumer said. Saying that Congress needs to learn from the example of ChoicePoint to "replace the current patchwork of state and federal laws with a real security blanket -- one that protects privacy, keeps Social Security numbers private, and prevents fraud and identity theft."
–– Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.),

"Make no mistake about it, identity theft poses a very real threat to our economy and it is on the rise," Corzine said. "In fact, it's our nation's fastest growing crime. And last year, identity theft complaints to the Federal Trade Commission grew by 50 percent since 2002. With so many instances of fraudsters seeking to abuse an individual's good name, it is clear that more must be done to prevent the proliferation of identity theft."
-- Sen. John Corzine (D-N.J.).

Sen. Corzine said he would propose a bill which would require companies, including financial institutions and other commercial entities such third-party data collectors, such as ChoicePoint to have security systems to safeguard cconsumer's personal information.

A company's chief compliance officer or its CEO, would have to personally attest that the required safeguards were in place (as in Sarbanes-Oxley).