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Still reeling from the massive data breach incident and facing scrutiny from privacy regulators, Desjardins has announced that it has expanded its protection plan for personal and business customers.
Desjardins had teamed up with credit bureau Equifax to offer the 2.7 million individual members affected by a major data breach a credit-monitoring plan. Affected members were also offered identity-theft insurance for one year.
But now CEO Guy Cormier has revealed that all Desjardins caisse members are covered by the protection plan at no additional cost. In addition, the identity-theft insurance for all members has been extended to five years, and Desjardins will also reimburse up to $50,000 of expenses related to identity theft. Such expenses include salary loss, document notarization or legal and accounting fees.
“Our members can sleep soundly,” the executive said in a conference call. “Desjardins is being proactive, Desjardins is putting measures in place. We are clearly saying that if there are unauthorized financial transactions in people’s accounts, we will indemnify them.”
On June 20, Desjardins revealed that the information of about 2.7 million individual members had been compromised after an unidentified employee leaked internal data. That employee has since been fired.
Names, dates of birth, social insurance numbers, addresses and phone numbers were exposed due to the incident. In addition, the information of about 173,000 business customers was also affected.
Postmedia reported that only about 360,000 Desjardins members have signed up thus far for the Equifax protection following news of the breach.
During the conference call with reporters, Cormier noted that even he had signed up for the Equifax plan, since he too had been informed that his personal data had been compromised. The executive also confirmed earlier reports that his predecessor, Claude Béland, had his identity stolen.
“Desjardins will be there to help Mr. Béland,” the executive said.
