ABN AMRO recovers lost data
By MortgageDaily.com staff
12/20/2005

Security personnel got an early Christmas present at ABN AMRO Mortgage Group Inc.

Last week, the Chicago-based lender disclosed that DHL had lost a computer tape containing private data of approximately 2 million residential borrowers while en route from a Chicago data center to an Experian credit bureau facility north of Dallas. The incident happened on Nov. 18, and ABN AMRO said it had notified law enforcement officials, the Comptroller of Currency and the Federal Reserve Board.

In an announcement today, the lender said the computer tape was located Monday and returned to its Chicago headquarters.

DHL staff found the package with the original airbill, opened it and repackaged the tape with a new airbill addressed to ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, Inc., the company's investigation reportedly found.

Because of the lapse in time that the tape was fully accounted for, ABN AMRO will continue investigating the recovery of the tape.

ABN AMRO said it will cover the cost of monitoring the credit of the affected borrowers for up to one year.

"We certainly regret the concern this has caused our customers," chairman and CEO Thomas M. Goldstein said in the statement. "Although we have no reason to believe that the tape was compromised, we feel it is always a good practice for consumers to monitor their credit activity on a regular basis and we continue to encourage customers who received written notification of this incident to sign up for the free credit monitoring service we have arranged."

News of the tape recovery was relayed to law enforcement officials and regulatory agencies -- who are not pursuing action at this time.

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