Question & Answer

Question: Can we make a photocopy of a driver's license and attach it to our signature card or application when we are opening an account? Somewhere we heard that it was discriminatory to do that because the license indicates sex and sometimes race.

Answer: There is no prohibition known to us to copying a driver's license when you are opening an account. There is no Reg. B violation because no credit decision is being made. As our contact at the Federal Reserve Regulatory Agency put it, "Strangely enough, there is an equal credit opportunity law, but there is no deposit opportunity law!"

Unless there is a state law prohibiting such a practice, (and we know of none), there is nothing to keep you from making a copy of a driver's license and attaching it to the application for account. We have been suggesting such a practice for some time in order to have information you might need for a customer when filling out a Currency Transaction Report. When opening a deposit account, you might not record the license number which is still necessary in completing the new 4789. You'd have it if a copy of the license was attached to the app.

Copyright © 1995 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 5, No. 9, 6/95