Privacy policies of JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup

¶ … Privacy Policies of JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup

The JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup are the top three American banks with reference to their assets and revenues. Operating in different countries, these banks are the major actors in the U.S. financial industry. The objective of this paper is to explore the privacy policies of the JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup. Moreover, the study explores the mission statements of the three companies, and the strategies the companies can employ in improving their privacy policies.

Bank of America

The BOA (Bank of America) is one of the leading financial institutions in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, the Bank of America ranks the second largest financial institution in term of the asset. In 2013, the Bank of America is the 21st largest company in term of revenue in the United States. At the end of 2015 fiscal year, the total asset of the Bank of America was $2.14 Trillion with the net income of $15.89 billion. Bank of America offers their product and services through 16,000 ATM locations, 5,100 banking centers mobile and online banking platforms. (Bank of America, 2015).

BOA Mission Statements

The mission statement of Bank of America is to offer investment and lending product to serve moderate and low-income earners as well as families and individuals, improve the moderate and low-income communities and create a sustainable long practice for the community they serve. (Bank of America, 2015).

Privacy Policy

The Bank of America privacy policies follow the federal law guidelines that advise financial organizations to limit sharing their personal information. Bank of America collects the personal information of customers such as employment information, SSN (social security number), credit information, account balance, and investment experience. In their privacy policy statement, the Bank of America states the reason for collecting the personal information of the customer. The bank collects the customer personal identified information such as names, email addresses, postal addresses, and telephone to identify customers and use them to respond to customers' inquiries. Moreover, the information collected assists the bank to verify the customers' identity before allowing them to conduct online transactions, prevent fraud, and enhance the security of their accounts. (Bank of America, 2015).

JP Morgan Chase

The JP Morgan Chase is among the oldest financial institutions in the United States dated back to over 200 years. Similar to the Bank of America, the JP Morgan is one of largest financial in the world with $2.4 trillion worth of assets. Operating in more than 60 countries, JP Morgan is a leader in investment commercial banking, asset management, and business commercial banking. The JP Morgan is also one of the Big 4 banks in the United States with the net income of $24.44 Billion at the end of the 2015 fiscal year. (JP Morgan America, 2015).

Mission Statement

The mission statement of the JP Morgan is to be the best financial service company globally because our excellent platform and great heritage we believe are within our reach.

JP Morgan Privacy Policy

The JP Morgan privacy policy is similar to the privacy policy of Bank of America. The JP Morgan stipulates in their website that the customer privacy is important, and the bank collects the private information of their customers such as names, addresses, email, and telephone number to assist in a customers' identification and uses them communicate to customers. Moreover, the bank collects the SSN (Social Security Number) of the customers for the identification purpose and credit report. In accordance with the federal government regulation, the JP Morgan protects the personal information of their customers by maintaining procedural, electronic, and physical safeguards of the customer information from an unauthorized access and alteration. However, the privacy policy of the JP Morgan is more comprehensive than the privacy policy of the Bank of America because the company states that they may collect information about the customer from both offline and online sources. The information collected is to assist the JP Morgan to evaluate, administer and improve their product and services. (JP Morgan America, 2015).

Citigroup

Citigroup is an American multinational financial institution operating in the financial and banking industry. Headquartered in New York, the Citigroup is the third largest bank in the United States by assets. The Citigroup manages more than 200 million accounts and operates in 140 countries with 160,000 offices globally. At the end of the 2015 fiscal year, the Citigroup recorded a net income of $17.24 billion with the total assets of $1.73 Trillion. Over the years, the Citigroup has formed a conglomerate from CitiMortgage, Citi Commercial Bank, Citi Retail Services, and Citi Banking. (Citigroup, 2015).

Mission Statements

The mission statement of the Citigroup is by recognizing that the foreclosures affect the family, individual and the community. The Citigroup believes that early intervention, as well as full understanding of alternatives, are critical to minimizing or mitigate the effect of foreclosures. (Citigroup, 2015).

Recommendations

The analysis of the privacy policies of the JP Morgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America reveals that these banks can turn the mass volume of information collected from their customer to their market advantages. Typically, the data collected can be used for their marketing plan and to identify the potential customers for their product and services. Moreover, they can use the information to plan their marketing campaigns to achieve the competitive market advantages. In the United States, thousands of financial institutions operate in the financial industry, and if the Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan intend to remain the leaders, they should create mass customer data bank, which will assist them to design effective marketing campaigns. Moreover, the data will assist them to analyze the customer behaviors and preferences and plan the marketing campaigns based on the income level of their potential customers.

The paper recommends that both the JP Morgan and Bank of America should educate customers on the strategy to be employed in protecting their data. Analysis of their privacy policies reveals that they do not provide a guideline for customer data protection. Both organizations should educate their customers on the method to protect their data. For example, they should educate the customers that they should install antivirus software to protect their computer system against an unauthorized access. Moreover, they should educate the customers that the spyware has the ability to steal their passwords. Thus, they should avoid downloading suspicious attachment because some attachment contains malware that could destroy their systems. Moreover, both the JP Morgan and Bank of America should educate the customers about the encryption technology that will assist them to secure their information that passes through the internet. Moreover, they should let them know that the encryption technology is an effective tool used to protect a host of applications, sensitive documents, and email messages against identified or non-identified attackers. (Gaycken, 2010).

Moreover, all the three banks should draw a comprehensive privacy policies for their employees because employees also have the right to private policies. The banks should educate their employees about the privacy of their emails and text messages. They should be educated when and when not to use the company emails for personal communications. (Smith, & Burg, 2012). These banks should also educate the customers through their privacy policies about the effectiveness of encryption. Typically, the effectiveness of encryption technology depends on the length of the key. The longer the key, the more secure the data. For example, the 40-bit key consist of 240 possible combinations, which is only effective for an ordinary browser. However, 128-bit encryption technology has been the strongest encryption technology available providing different 2128 possible combinations. The customers should secure their browsers against an unauthorized access by using the 128 bits. Both the JP Morgan and Bank of America should also elaborate in their privacy policies that the customer should avoid using a public computer or shared computer to access their personal data. The Citigroup should state the motive of collecting the SSN of their customers because the SSN is very critical for customer identification.

All the three companies should classify the data collected from their customer based on their level of importance. They should label some data as highly confidential, which should be used strictly within the company. The highly confidential data "include credit-card transaction data, customer names and addresses, card magnetic stripe contents, passwords and PINs, employee payroll files, and Social Security numbers." (FCC, 2014 p 2). The second category of data should be labeled Sensitive

"Intended for use within your company. Examples of this type of data include employee performance evaluations, internal audit reports, various financial reports, product designs, partnership agreements, marketing plans and email marketing lists." (FCC, 2014 p 2).

The third category of data is internal use only data "applies to sensitive information that is generally accessible by a wide audience and is intended for use only within the company." (FCC, 2014 p 2).

Conclusion

The study provides the comparative analysis of the privacy policies of the JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup, and the outcome of the analysis reveals that the privacy policies of the Citigroup are more comprehensive than the privacy policies of both the Bank of America and JP Morgan. Typically, the Citigroup elaborates the strategy the customers should employ in order to protect their sensitive information. The paper provides the recommendations to improve their privacy policies. The paper also provides a recommendation on the method to use the data collected to achieve the market advantages. The mass volume of customer data can be used to design the marketing plan to enjoy superior market advantages.

Reference

Bank of America (2015). Privacy Policy. The United States.

Bank of America (2015). Annual Report 2015. United States

Citigroup (2015). Privacy Policy. The United States.

Citigroup (2015). Annual Report 2015. United States

FCC (2014). Cyber Security Planning Guide. Federal Communication Commission.

Gaycken, S. (2010). The necessity of (some) certainty - A critical remark concerning Matthew Sklerov's concept of "active defense. Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, 12(2).

Judy, H.L., et al. (2014). Privacy in cyberspace: U.S. and European perspectives. In Bosworth, et al., (Eds.), Computer security handbook (6th ed., pp. 69.1-69.38). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

JP Morgan (2015). Privacy Policy 2015. The United States.

JP Morgan (2015). Annual Report 2015. United States.

Keys, R., Winstead, C., & Simmons, K. (2010). Cyberspace Security and Attribution. National Security Cyberspace Institute.

Smith, D.V. & Burg, J. (2012). What Are the Limits of Employee Privacy? American Bar Association. 29 (6).