The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants investment advisors and other companies it regulates to put their procedures for disposing of personal consumer report information in writing.[@@]
The SEC already has proposed a regulation, Regulation S-P, that would implement Section 216 of the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. The proposed regulation would require companies that the SEC oversees to take proper precautions to keep discarded consumer information out of the hands of stalkers and identity thieves.
The SEC says it now has decided to add amendments to the proposed regulation that would require the policies and procedures adopted under the safeguard rule to be in writing.
"Since 2001, our staff has examined brokers, dealers, investment companies and registered investment advisers for their compliance with the safeguard rule," SEC officials write in a discussion of the proposed rule amendments that appear today in the Federal Register. "In the course of these examinations, our staff has identified firms that lack written policies and procedures that address the safeguarding of consumer information and records."
About 10% of the SEC-regulated firms that should be complying with FACT appear to lack written consumer information disposal policies, the officials estimate in a section of the notice that discusses the costs and benefits of the proposed amendments.
