THE City of Kingston (COK) Cooperative Credit Union, as part of its annual activities in observance of Credit Union Week, which runs from October 15 to 21, will Thursday host a forum on identity theft, at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.

The forum, which will look at the theft of identity in use of debit and credit cards, is being held under the theme 'Confronting identity fraud: the changing nature of financial security'.

Speaking with JIS News, general manager of COK Brenda Cuthbert said the public forum would examine the current and potential impact of identity fraud on financial institutions and the roles and responsibilities of such institutions, and customers in protecting themselves.

"Identity fraud is a concern to all financial institutions and users of financial services, so while there are various groups addressing the matter we wanted to take the initiative to create a space for public discussion of the issue for the benefit of all concerned," she said.

Cuthbert said the keynote speaker at the forum will be Audley L Gordon, senior partner of Deloitte and Touche, a firm that has done extensive research into identity fraud, its effects on, and the responses of financial institutions.

"Mr Gordon will speak on how financial institutions in Jamaica should position themselves to confront identity fraud and he will be joined by a learned panel consisting of Deputy Superintendent of the Jamaica Constabulary Force's Fraud Squad Fitz Bailey and Kevin Duncan, researcher at the University of the West Indies, as well as Anthony Morris, internal audit manager at COK," said Cuthbert.

She added that a wide range of specialised topics would be explored by the panelists.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World