Chase should be SLAMMED with fines by the Gov't and/or banking regulatory agencies, and should create new plans for proper disposal of this confidential material.

Where will such insanity end? They are not the first, nor will they be the last - but they should be made to suffer the consequences of their poor handling of people's most confidential documents. Moreover, they should pay for anyone who's ID is stolen to get it cleared up, including any and all fees associated with it.

Glad I'm not a Chase customer, if I were I wouldn't be by day's end.

I completely agree with the comment above.
Think of the countless millions spent on "compliance", "reporting" and validation of secure processes in IT and then watch it literally be thrown out with garbage.

I can hear the winces from every other bank and finance institution. I no longer use bank-level security as an adverb in any of our presentations. Too many folk start laughing!

I am a Chase customer, as well as an employee of a bank whose retail banking business was recently acquired by Chase. It's possible that my personal and work information was compromised, and I am extremely unhappy about it.

Banks have strict regulatory requirements and policies regarding IT processes, anti-money laundering regulations, privacy, and document retention/destruction. My employer was recently commended by the Fed for best in class processes. For Chase, the only regulation that seemed to work as intended was the requirement to report suspicious activity, even if it is performed by employees.

I commend the SEIU for exposing this practice, but I am more afraid of how long this has been going on, and the potential harm it may cause. I agree with Scott regarding the consequences Chase should face.

Let's focus on what's the right course of action and forego the "get even", "let's show them" mentality. If I found them I'd return them to the location of origin and assure that the person in charge understood what had happened. If any of those documents were about my personal information I'd like to think the person who found them would return them to the location of origin and assure that the person in charge understood what had happened. In other words, I'd like to know I can trust someone to be honest and considerate enough to do the right thing.

If I can't trust Chase to protect my identity and financial information I'll find someone who will and Chase will lose me as a customer.

Are you kidding, of the millions of pieces of personal information that a bank has, a couple of loan applications are found in the trash and we are ready to throw the entire organization under the bus? How about a dose of reality, 90% of fraud/identity theft is caused by consumers being careless with their own information. Do we know chases policy on document destruction, maybe they burn all of their trash, maybe the integrity of the cleaning service is what should be questioned.

I am a Chase credit card holder. I am wondering if the bank documents found in the trash includes personal info of its credit card holders or just loan applicants. Could this question be forwarded to Chase or should I get info from them directly?
With all the identity theft going on, Chase should take extra responsibility to protect its clients' confidential info & any carelessness or violation of privacy deserves a penalty. May God-justice prevail!

I have to agree with Mark, I wouldn't condemn the entire organization on what might be the misguided actions of one employee. Any bank employee who has access to customer information should have had plenty of training on security and identity theft awareness. Chase needs to get to the source of this incident and also let their internal auditors determine if there has been a more systemic breakdown of controls over customer information.

Many organizations that handle confidential information will continue to misuse and mishandle the identities of others, as long as it is economically feasible to do so. It's all about the money. When we make it more costly for them to abuse confidential information than to protect it, these everyday incidents will become rare.

Craig Herberg

Let's not forget, people, that regardless how reprehensible the action of the employee who failed to properly dispose of documents, you have a union trying to air this dirty laundry publicly to their advantage, rather than having brought the matter to Chase privately. The SEIU is looking for "moral outrage" to back their position of wanting to keep over-compensated union members in those positions. I wonder why they have to stoop to such levels to justify "all the good they do for their members?"

There are Laws that affect All business in the US. Gramm-Leach-Bliley is one of them directed at all Financial Institutions and many who may not even think they are FI. I am a Cerified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist and we are trying to get to as many companies as we can to help them. We are working with companies across the US. We are presenting Identity Theft Trainig and Awareness Programs on Safeguarding Non-Public information. Safeguarding Non-Public Information is one of the Biggest Challenges facing a company today. If your a company who would like more information feel free to contact us at TheAbramsonTeam@yahoo.com Let us show you how we can help your company at no cost to the company too.