making
headlines

People's Caught in Data Crossfire

The number of People's United Bank customers who have joined a civil suit grew over the holiday weekend, according to the lawyer who filed the suit Friday in New Haven Superior Court.

Attorney Michael A. Stratton alleged negligence, invasion of privacy, breach of fiduciary duty and violation of Connecticut's Unfair Trade Practices Act in the suit against the Bridgeport-based bank and Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

The suit grew out of news last week that unencrypted computer data back-up tapes belonging to BNY Mellon Shareowner Services disappeared in February en route to a storage facility. The estimated 4.5 million people whose personal information was stored on the tape includes more than 500,000 depositors of People's Bank.

People's hired BNY Mellon Shareowner Services in 2007 to tabulate votes and process stock orders during its conversion from a mutual bank, which is owned by depositors, to one that is fully publicly traded.

People's Bank spokeswoman Valerie Carlson on Tuesday said the bank does not comment on pending litigation, and referred all other questions to BNY Mellon. BNY Mellon spokesman Ronald Sommer said Tuesday: "We haven't been formally served with the complaint, and accordingly are not in a position to comment further. In a broader context, it's worth noting that we continue to have no reason to think that the data on the missing tapes has been accessed or used inappropriately."

BNY Mellon has declined requests for details about which companies had information on the tapes; the bank is sending letters to affected People's customers. MetLife said last week information about approximately 64,000 of its shareholders was on the tapes; Wachovia Bank said information about some employees who participated in a particular benefits plan was on the tapes, but wouldn't be more specific.

People's Bank notified Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal about the disappearance. Last week, Connecticut subpoenaed BNY Mellon, People's and Wachovia for information. Tuesday, Blumenthal said BNY Mellon had not responded to his demands for information about the extent of the breach.

"I am increasingly troubled by the failure to provide the details that I've demanded," Blumenthal said. But, he said, "There are ongoing discussions to meet our demands for information."Stratton, of the New Haven law firm Stratton Faxon, is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Megan McLoughlin, of Bridgeport, Jerome Larracuente, of Stratford, and six other People's customers, according to the complaint. But, Stratton said, he received 50 calls from other People's customers over the weekend looking to join the suit.

This is not Stratton's only suit against People's. In April, he filed a suit after the Connecticut Post broke a story about a customer who found papers with Social Security numbers and other information thrown away in branch dumpsters. Tuesday, Stratton said the latest suit began with the same plaintiffs. While Blumenthal has called People's a victim in this case, Stratton said the bank had a responsibility to its customers to protect their information.

"It just really irks me" that People's hasn't taken responsibility, he said, adding that BNY Mellon bears some responsibility, but People's customers should be able to ask their bank for relief. BNY Mellon has offered one year of free credit monitoring to those whose information was on the lost tapes.

The next step, Stratton said, is to find out what happened to the computer tapes, and how it happened. He plans on deposing People's Bank executives and will seek a class-action certification.

"The remedy here is meaningful identity theft protection, meaningful identity theft insurance," and some sort of financial remedy, he said.