WASHINGTON – A representative from the Consumer Data IndustryAssociation and a lobbyist who works with the Delaware Credit UnionLeague debated some of the finer points of so-called creditfreezes, procedures by which consumers can prevent credit reportingagencies from selling their credit reports for opening new creditapplications. Opening fraudulent credit card and other loanaccounts is a key part of identity theft. From the outset, eachside of the discussion admitted that credit freeze laws have sweptthe country, that they appear to be here to stay and that much ofthe remaining discussion had to do with the details, particularlyover whether the credit reporting agencies need to be able to“unfreeze” a consumer's credit report in as little as 15 minutes.“I cannot state firmly enough how opposed we are to these 15-minuteprovisions,” said Chantele Mack, a manager with the Consumer DataIndustry Association. She pointed out that while providing creditreports is a technology which has been developed for decades, thefreezing and unfreezing of accounts remains largely a manualfunction. Lobbyist and organizer George Fitzgerald countered thatquick unfreezing of accounts both made freezing them moreacceptable to consumers and helped encourage merchants to supportlaws authorizing them. “People should not make the mistake ofassuming I am against credit reporting,” Fitzgerald said. “Not atall, as a former insurance executive I understand the importance ofcredit reporting, but we have to make credit reporting moreresponsive to consumer concerns about safety.” For her part, Mackreminded the meeting that her organization's members make money byselling credit reports and that as soon as they could freeze andunfreeze accounts easily, they would do so. “It's in our bestinterest to try to make our processes as easy to use as possible,but when it comes to credit freezing we just aren't yet where weneed to be,” she said.