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Banks told to guard customer data

The nation's credit information center yesterday urged banks to be more careful in handing consumers' personal information and more vigilant over leaks of such data.

"We would like to call on the banks to raise their level of alertness on protecting customers' personal information and to strengthen their internal controls over staff to prevent potential collusion hazards," said an official at the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 金融聯合徵信中心) who asked not to be named.

The official's remarks followed reports yesterday that the credit histories of nearly 1,000 people, stored in the JCIC's database, were reportedly leaked through Pan Asia Bank's (泛亞銀行) consumer banking service center which has access to the database.

The leak was discovered on Wednesday.

The names of two people were used by criminals to apply for loans totalling NT450,000 from other banks, including Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) and the Chinese Bank (中華銀行).

While the center compiles and stores credit information on companies and individuals for its member institutions' use, it has given members unrestricted access to the database information, said the official.

Pan Asia, an 11-year-old bank with 39 branches nationwide, said that the data leak is under investigation and six staff members suspected of involvement in the case had been questioned by prosecutors, released and were now back at their jobs.

"We have been keeping in close contact with the authorities, including the Bureau of Monetary Affairs, and are voluntarily reporting any updates on the case to them," said Shieh I-peng (謝一鵬), Pan Asia's senior executive vice president and spokesman.

"So far, none of our customers have reported any losses or infringements to us," Shieh said. "We will take responsibility to compensate people for losses caused by the bank's negligence if the investigation proves we were at fault."

The Union Bank has reported that one of its depositors was a victim of identity theft, saying the customer's name was used in an attempt to borrow NT$190,000. The bank said it discovered the fraud attempt after contacting the depositor . The loan was then blocked.

Taichung prosecutors and police have launched investigations into the data leak to see if there was any complicity between Pan Asia Bank's staff and criminals.

"We may suspend Pan Asia's access to our credit database if there were any illegal acts and improper inquiries were proved to have occurred. Such a punishment would have a large impact on the bank's business," the JCIC official said.

People who are concerned that their credit information may have been leaked should contact their banks or apply to JCIC for verification of their credit history, he said. The application can be made in person or by mail, he said, and costs NT$200.

Given the number of leaks of personal data, the Consumers' Foundation (消基會) yesterday said that banks have not done enough to protect their customers.

"Most of the banks only care about their own business and do not meet their obligations for internal control and management," said Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), the foundation's secretary general.
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