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Keane’s Investor Data Quality Program (IDQ)  was featured in an article entitled, “Major Security Breach Lurks in Shops’ Investor Data,” published in the July 1, 2008 issue of Ignites.  Dave McCrystal, VP of Corporate Development at Keane, discussed the importance of database integrity in light of the upcoming November 1 deadline for the ‘Red Flag Rules’ amendment to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA). 

FACTA added new sections to the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA, 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), and requires financial institutions to increase their effort in monitoring database oversights through the implementation of “Identity Theft Protection Programs.”  According to McCrystal, “When you have database flaws, you can make unintentional mistakes in account access.”  Where encryption firewalls and virtual private networks can mitigate data security risk, they only solve part of the problem.  “You need to have control over the data itself,” he says.

Keane analyzed over 11 million mutual fund, corporate and brokerage records over the last two years and uncovered 250,000 instances where the named account owner was deceased.  In some cases, companies were sending mail, and even dividend checks to the deceased, creating a huge potential for fraud.  Failing to maintain data integrity can be very costly.

Keane’s IDQ Program helps mutual funds and corporations take a proactive approach towards analysis that identifies and raises “red flags” for fraud, compliance and asset risk.  By mitigating these issues, any organization can reduce unnecessary risk and cost. 

For more information on how Keane ICRS Services can assist your organization, contact Mark Sweatman at (610) 232-0745 or msweatman@keaneco.com.