CitiFinancial, the community lending arm of Citigroup, said that tapes bearing the names of 3.9 million CitiFinancial Branch Network customers were lost by shipper UPS while in transit to a credit bureau.
The tapes contained information about customers within the United States, as well as individuals who had closed their CitiFinancial Retail Services accounts. The tapes did not contain any data from any of Citigroup’s other businesses.
Citigroup has not received any reports of unauthorized activity, and as of Monday had no reason to believe the information had been used inappropriately, according to a statement.
“We deeply regret this incident, which occurred in spite of the enhanced security procedures we require of our couriers,” said Kevin Kessinger, executive vice president of Citigroup’s Global Consumer Group and president of Consumer Finance North America, in a statement.
Kessinger continued, “There is little risk of the accounts being compromised because customers have already received their loans, and no additional credit may be obtained from CitiFinancial without prior approval of our customers, either by initiating a new application or by providing positive proof of identification. Beginning in July, this data will be sent electronically in encrypted form.”
Network
