Farm Credit Services Fights Identity Theft
Client: Farm Credit Services of Mid-America
Challenge: Comply with new Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction (FACT) Act of 2003 federal regulations; automate detection and resolution of potential identity fraud attempts in the credit transaction process.
Solution: ComplyID, CSC’s Web-based decision and workflow software service.
Results: FCS has met federal regulations, and has streamlined and automated its credit reporting process, with improved red flag and identity theft detection.
Related Information
Learn more about ComplyID and CSC’s Credit Services capabilities and identity management solutions.
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Fighting identity theft and complying with new credit reporting regulations can be daunting for lenders. ComplyID, a Web-based service from CSC, helps automate the process, leaving little to chance while delivering significant business benefits. Farm Credit Services of Mid-America (FCS) is using ComplyID to identify suspicious activities as well as improve workflow and business processes. CSC developed the service as a decision and workflow solution to help companies comply with regulations added last year to the FACT (Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction) Act of 2003, a law designed to reduce identity theft.
Red flag alert
FCS of Mid-America is a $15.5 billion financial services cooperative serving over 85,500 farmers, agribusinesses and rural residents in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. As part of the FACT Act, new “Red Flag Rules” went into effect in November 2008 requiring lenders to comply with standardized tracking and reporting practices.
At FCS, ComplyID serves as an effective ID validation service. In addition, ComplyID significantly streamlines their entire credit reporting process. According to Janice Smith, director of Credit Desk Loan Underwriting at FCS, “ComplyID allows us to manage our process more efficiently.”
Before implementing ComplyID, FCS employees tracked down red flags manually. This meant relying on individual underwriters and sales staff to catch potential problems with loan applications. ComplyID’s workflow system automatically identifies red flags and sends alerts to the appropriate staff member to take action.
CSC worked closely with FCS to build a custom detection list, choosing from some 240 red flags. These include suspicious identifying information or discrepancies with a customer’s address. Upon detection of a red flag, ComplyID automatically verifies, validates and resolves discrepancies using multiple data sources. The system also equips lenders and creditors with a powerful toolkit to quickly analyze and resolve loan processing delays.
Consistent compliance
ComplyID is a standalone service that has a variety of third-party resolution tools built into it. Paul Holguin, a senior manager in CSC’s Credit Services division, says the product was designed to meet the specific compliance requirements of lenders. “Lenders have to have a program that is able to detect red flags and resolve them, and most lenders do not have an automated way of finding these,” says Holguin. “There’s a compliance piece to it, but more importantly, from a business standpoint, there’s an operational component.”
ComplyID also provides resolution, tracking and reporting components that FCS finds beneficial. In addition to FCS, other ComplyID customers include mortgage lenders, banks, credit unions, auto dealers and credit/debit card organizations. The automated service supplies an audit trail of what has moved through the system, and generates reports showing monthly activities for each account.