Fed official says uniform data breach disclosure rules needed

(Reuters) — U.S. Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo on Thursday said uniform disclosure requirements were needed for participants in the payment processing system so that banks and customers know when data breaches occur.

Mr. Tarullo told the Senate Banking Committee that regulators required banks to notify customers and take certain remediation steps when breaches happen, but many of those rules do not exist for retailers such as Target Corp, which was the site of a recent major data breach.

"I think you probably need some uniform requirements on disclosure when breaches have actually taken place," Mr. Tarullo said. "Until the banks and customers are sure that they know whenever anything has happened with their data, it's going to be hard for people to respond."