SEC Proposes Identity Theft Prevention Rules

WASHINGTON (CN) - Broker-dealers, mutual funds and other financial services have to develop policies to protect their customers from identity theft, according to new rules proposed by two federal agencies.

The policies must include procedures for identifying the common "red flags" indicating identity theft, detecting those red flags, and responding to them, according to the rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires the agencies to adopt identity-theft provisions for the entities they regulate, to conform with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The CFTC said the entities it regulates that will have to develop the policies include futures commission merchants, retail foreign exchange dealers, commodity trading advisors, commodity pool operators, introducing brokers, swap dealers, and major swap participants.

In addition to broker-dealers and mutual funds, the SEC will require all entities required to register with the commission under the Exchange Act to develop identity theft policies.

The public has until May 7 to comment on the proposed rules.

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