January 10, 2018

American Banker: Warren, Warner propose 'massive' fines for breaches at credit bureaus

WASHINGTON - Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mark Warner, D-Va., are set Wednesday to introduce a bill that would create mandatory penalties for data breaches at credit reporting agencies.

"Our bill imposes massive and mandatory penalties for data breaches at companies like Equifax - and provides robust compensation for affected consumers - which will put money back into people's pockets and help stop these kinds of breaches from happening again," Warren said in a press release.

The Data Breach Prevention and Compensation Act would set mandatory fines at $100 for each consumer who has a piece of personally identifiable information compromised and another $50 for each additional piece of personal identifiable data. The penalties would be capped at 50% of the credit reporting agencies' gross revenue from the prior year - except in cases of extreme negligence, in which case the fine would go up to 75% of the companies' prior year gross annual revenue.

Read the full article on the American Banker website here.