In our last post, we discussed possible confusion among businesses because of the official description of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Red Flags Rule. Under the rule, “creditors and financial institutions” will be required to implement programs to detect, respond to, and prevent possible instances of identity theft. Now, businesses have been given another three months to educate themselves and bring their practices up to compliance standards. The implementation deadline for the Red Flags Rule has been pushed back to November 1, 2009.
At the Federal Trade Commission website, it has been announced an expanded business education campaign will be launched during the three-month delay period to help clarify obligations and compliance issues. The FTC will be stepping up to further educate those businesses that may not consider themselves subject to compliance requirements. These redoubled efforts include plenty of time for creditors and financial institutions to develop and implement compliant programs.
The FTC will provide resources to help businesses determine if they are included in the rule. If obligated to adhere to these requirements, businesses can use this information to guide their compliance efforts. Among the available resources is an online compliance template to help businesses create their own compliance packages.
The FTC is taking special care to make sure all of these resources are thorough, detailed, and user-friendly so the Red Flags Rule will launch successfully at the newly decided date.