Larger fine needed

Not enough!

That’s the response of Government senator Dr. Lynette Holder to the proposed $50,000 fine for any credit bureau that breaches the confidentiality of its clients.

During her presentation today during debate on the Fair Credit Reporting Bill, 2021, Holder maintained the fine should be more, even though she did not offer a suggestion on the quantum. This position was seconded by fellow Government senator Rawdon Adams who supported the bill but asserted that $50,000 “pales in comparison” to the value of some of the data at stake.

“Any contravention to this Act, giving out information illegally on clients or breaching in any form, is a serious issue. So when we have, for example at section 28, it says that a credit bureau which discloses data subject information in contravention to this section is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $50,000, I have seen legislation come before us with heftier fines. I believe that if a credit bureau contravenes this Act in any form, they should be a much stiffer penalty than $50,000,” Senator Holder stressed.

Independent Senator Alphea Wiggins also weighed in on the risks of data breaches. She acknowledged they do occur and expressed concern about the possibility of “accidental” breaches as seen by the leaked Paradise papers a few years ago.

The leaked documents included loan agreements, financial statements, emails, and other details from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in “secrecy jurisdictions” including Barbados and several other Caribbean territories.

“One of the things that I am concerned about in terms of all the information about your family, friends and whoever that is being forwarded to the credit bureau, is that they can be accidental breaches and every time there is a breach . . . you hear that it was an ‘accidental’ breach. Barbados is a very small society and confidentiality is very important. It is a very important plank in which this Bill will have because if I go to get a loan and I have my father, my mother, a friend guarantee the loan for me, they too have to submit their information to the credit bureau. So in fact, it is a lot of data harvesting that will be going on with respect to this credit bureau and this is why . . . I firmly believe that a part of the process in terms of setting up this bureau is that Barbadians have to be told exactly the outcomes, what happens to their data; how it will be treated.

Moreover, Senator Wiggins questioned if the Central Bank of Barbados, which is proposed to be the regulatory body for the credit bureau, can adequately undertake the role given its current workload in looking after the economic and developmental aspects of Barbados. She suggested instead that an agency similar to the financial service corporation, with the Central Bank still having oversight of this credit bureau be set up.

Senator Wiggins said: “Unless of course you would be setting up a whole new department within the Central Bank to be able to have oversight of this operation because you are more or less looking at the life blood of people’s information. . . . I know there is an inspection bank supervision section of the Central Bank but I believe that a lot is changing and I believe we have to bring our people along with us.”

Adams agreed but took it a step further when he queried if the Central Bank had the resources to provide regulatory oversight or was “skilled enough” to perform these functions . . . a credit information provider must provide its transition data to this credit bureau, if it can truly satisfy itself that that group or entity has the means to protect that data”. (KC)