A former employee claims the processor she worked for fired her because it feared she would tell one of its clients, JPMorgan, that employees share passwords that put borrower’s information at risk.
An Ohio appeals court has granted a former employee of Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) another chance at challenging her firing. Carrie Rebello claims that LPS dismissed her because it feared she would tell one of its clients, JPMorgan, employees share passwords that allow coworkers to access confidential information about JPMorgan borrowers who faced foreclosures.
According to Cleveland.com, Rebello discovered the password sharing in 2010 and expressed concern shortly after LPS hired her to oversee a department that handled troubled JPMorgan mortgages and in 2012, she forbade her employees to share passwords and threatened to tell JPMorgan. Rebello said LPS fired her after that
However, LPS has a different story. The mortgage processor said Rebello swore within earshot of coworkers during personal phone calls and was tardy to work.
LPS and JPMorgan both have polices that prohibit employees from sharing their JPMorgan-assigned passwords. JPMorgan kept private data about troubled borrowers in a system that vendors' employees could access only if they had both a JPMorgan-issued token and an individually assigned password. Employees had to undergo background checks by both companies to receive a password, according to the media outlet.
In 2014, Rebello pleaded her case in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. The judge ruled in favor of LPS, citing that no protections exist for employees who object to Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act violations. The Act requires financial companies and vendors to protect the security and confidentiality of private customer data.
