ICFE Joins ANSI-BBB Identity Theft Prevention
and Identity Management Standards Panel

San Diego, CA. - The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) have announced today a new cross-sector, market-wide initiative to substantively advance marketplace mechanisms to minimize identity theft and fraud - the Identity Theft Prevention and Identity Management Standards Panel (IDSP).

Joining ANSI and BBB in this effort are nine leading corporations who each have committed a sizable sponsorship to underwrite the initial costs of the Panel. These nine Founding Partners are: AT&T, Citi, ChoicePoint, Dell Inc., Intersections Inc., Microsoft, Staples, Inc., TransUnion and Visa U.S.A.

The nonprofit, San Diego based Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE) has been invited to join the IDSP. The IDSP is designed to bring together the spectrum of standards and guidelines germane to ID Theft & Fraud Prevention and ID Management that exist across industries and sectors into a single resource, accessible to businesses of all sizes and types. As part of this process, the Panel will also identify standards that need updating and/or gaps where new standards work should be done.

The ICFE is the first organization to make available a nationally recognized certification program known as the ICFE Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist™ (CITRMS). The new curriculum has already been accepted for 30 continuing education credits for Certified Financial Planners (CFP) by the CFP Board of Standards and Practices and 30 PACE credits in conjunction with the American College and the Society of Financial Service Professionals for Chartered Financial Consultants (ChFCs) and Chartered Life Underwriters (CLUs) continuing education requirements. The International Association of Registered Financial Consultants also accepts the CITRMS program for 30 CEs for its Registered Financial Consultants (RFCs).

The IDSP has two main charges: First, it will endeavor to identify and catalogue in one place any existing, broadly-applicable identity theft and fraud prevention standards and guidelines. Second, it will identify areas where updated or new standards are needed. The panel's recommendations for revised or additional standards shall serve as a call to action for further work by the standards development community.

Comprised of a wide range of stakeholders, the Panel will develop a comprehensive resource of standards and guidelines that businesses and other organizations can use to prevent and respond to identity theft and fraud. The Panel will engage the broadest possible participation of all affected parties to select the specifications and best practices most applicable to combat identity fraud; it is being organized so that it shall not be disproportionately dependent upon any single organization or stakeholder group.

For more information contact:
Jim McCabe
Director, Consumer Relations and Public Policy
American National Standards Institute
25 West 43rd Street, Fourth Floor
New York, NY 10036
Tel: 1.212.642.8921
Fax: 1.212.398.0023
E-mail: jmccabe@ansi.org