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Board Member Hyland Participates in First Meeting of President’s Identity Theft Task Force

Washington, DC, May 22, 2006 - National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board Member Gigi Hyland represented the agency yesterday at the inaugural meeting of President Bush’s Identity Theft Task Force.

On May 10, 2006, the President signed an Executive Order for the purpose of strengthening federal efforts to protect against identity theft. The Order establishes the Task Force and provides that it will be co-chaired by the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Task Force membership includes representatives from the other executive branch departments as well as representatives from all of the federal financial regulatory agencies.

The goals of the Task Force include:

• Aggressive law enforcement actions designed to prevent, investigate and prosecute identity theft crimes;
• Improved public outreach by the Federal Government to better educate the public about identity theft and address how the private sector can implement measures to protect personal data; and
• Increased safeguards that federal departments, agencies and instrumentalities can implement to better secure government-held personal data.

“I was honored to participate in the Task Force meeting on behalf of NCUA,” stated Board Member Hyland. “Credit union members and consumers need as much information as possible to protect themselves against this pervasive threat. The collaborative efforts of this Task Force will hopefully succeed to deter identity theft and enhance the protection of consumers’ personal data.”

The National Credit Union Administration is the independent federal agency that regulates, charters and supervises federal credit unions. NCUA, with the backing of the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, also operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), insuring the deposits of over 85 million account holders in all federal credit unions and the majority of state-chartered credit unions.