State-chartered credit unions have another three months to come up with identity-theft protection programs as a result of the Federal Trade Commission's decision to extend the deadline for enforcing Red Flags."Given the ongoing debate about whether Congress wrote the provisions too broadly, delaying the enforcement of the Red Flags rule will allow industries and associations to share guidance with their members, provide low-risk entities an opportunity to use the templates in developing their programs, and give Congress time to consider the issue further," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said.The agency pushed the deadline to Aug. 1 from May 1. The deadline for having the rules in place had already been extended once before in October.The rules, which were developed by the FTC as a result of a law passed by Congress in 2002, state that the plans designed by the financial institution must be "appropriate to their size and complexity."There are 26 warning signs-or red flags-that these programs are aimed at guarding against. These include: a forged or altered application, the Social Security number supplied by an applicant is the same or similar as someone else opening an account and a financial institution is notified that the customer is not receiving account statements.Credit unions also have to ensure that their third-party providers that deal with members' account information are also in compliance with the plan.Federal credit unions were required to implement plans Oct. 1, 2008, because the NCUA did not extend its deadline as the FTC did.–[email protected]