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06-06-2005 07:13 PM |
The article for those that don't like links:
Quote:
U.S.: CitiFinancial Statement on Lost Data Tapes
New York, June 6, 2005— CitiFinancial has begun mailing the attached letter to 3.9 million CitiFinancial Branch Network customers whose personal information was on computer tapes that were lost by UPS while in transit to a credit bureau. The tapes contained information about CitiFinancial branch network customers in the United States as well as customers with closed accounts from CitiFinancial Retail Services. The tapes did not contain any customer information from CitiFinancial Auto, CitiFinancial Mortgage or any other Citigroup business. CitiFinancial said it had no reason to believe that this information has been used inappropriately, nor has it received any reports of unauthorized activity. Furthermore, there was no information on these tapes relating to customers of the CitiFinancial network operations in Canada or Puerto Rico.
"We deeply regret this incident, which occurred in spite of the enhanced security procedures we require of our couriers,” said Kevin Kessinger, Executive Vice President of Citigroup's Global Consumer Group and President of Consumer Finance North America. “There is little risk of the accounts being compromised because customers have already received their loans, and no additional credit may be obtained from CitiFinancial without prior approval of our customers, either by initiating a new application or by providing positive proof of identification. Beginning in July, this data will be sent electronically in encrypted form.”
“We are making every effort to ensure that our customers are aware of what we are doing and what we suggest they do to protect their identity. We are committed to ensuring that our customers have the support they need to monitor their credit and know how to respond should they identify any problems,” said Mr. Kessinger.
“Customer security is of paramount importance to Citigroup,” said Debby Hopkins, Chief Operations and Technology Officer of Citigroup. “While this incident affects the customers of only one of our businesses, we put significant effort into assuring that our data protection procedures meet and exceed industry standards at all of our businesses, and are reviewing the issues here as part of this ongoing effort.”
For access to the "Protect Yourself and Identity and Theft Fraud" tip sheet, click here .
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CitiFinancial
CitiFinancial provides community-based lending through more than 1,800 branches in the United States and distributes a wide variety of consumer loan products and services including real estate, personal loans and loans to finance consumer goods. CitiFinancial is part of Citigroup (NYSE: C), the preeminent global financial services company.
Citigroup
Citigroup, the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, insurance, securities brokerage, and asset management. Major brand names under Citigroup’s trademark red umbrella include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, Banamex, and Travelers Life and Annuity. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com.
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