10/18/2010
Regarding a question published 1/21/08: "Certificate of Compliance Guidance Needed", we received an IRS summons of financial records and would like to verify that we do need to obtain a Certificate of Compliance. We notified the IRS that we would need one prior to our release of records and they did not know what we were talking about. Finally they faxed us "Part D", and are not happy that we are even asking for this information. We just need to find out if this is something that we should still be obtaining when we receive government issued Request for Financial Records.
11/16/2009
Our bank received a Financial Records Summons (form 6639) from the IRS. The record keeper processed the request and submitted the requested items within two days of receipt of the information. Upon review of the form, a reference to Sec. 7609 'Special procedures for third-party summons' was noted. The wording in this section is very similar to the wording in the Right to Financial Privacy Act which gives the individual the opportunity to quash the summons. Should we have required a certificate verifying that the period to quash had expired prior to releasing the documentation?
05/18/2009
The bank has recently received a subpoena for one of our customers. The investigation is being conducted by state agencies. Does the federal version of the Right to Financial Privacy still apply? Do we still need a letter of compliance and does the bank need to wait for the customer to contest?
01/21/2008
I’m an operations specialist and I was reading the article <a href="http://www.bankersonline.com/compliance/mbg_banktrapped.html">"Bank Trapped in RFPA Violation Through Army Subpoena"</a>. We were then going through our own privacy policy and realized that we did not know what a certificate of compliance looked like or what is needed to be included in it to cover the bank legally. Who in a government agency is allowed to sign off on the certificate of compliance? I was hoping you might be able to tell me what all is in the certificate or be able to point me to an example of what one might look like.
10/02/2006
We have received a letter and a form 12470 from the IRS requesting information on a loan customer. They are requesting the customer address, employer address, how long employed, amount of obligation, date of obligation, amount of payments and due dates, etc. The IRS letter states that they are requesting this information under section 7602 of the Internal Revenue Code. Does this meet the requirements of the Right To Financial Privacy Act to release information on this borrower?
04/10/2006
The RFPA prohibits banks from releasing customer information to government agencies unless the customer has provided written consent. What is considered a government agency? I have a request from a State Department of Social Services for information on a customer that is trying to qualify for assistance payments. I have another one in which the customer is applying to be a tenant in a rental unit, and the company is using a USDA Rural Housing Service form. Would these be considered government agency requests?
01/31/2005
Concerning the Right to Financial Privacy Act and subpoenas: When we receive a subpoena, has the government authority who issued it already notified the customer at least 10 days in advance, or does the government mail/deliver the subpoena to the bank and customer at the same time? This would mean the bank must wait at least 10 days to provide the information in order for the customer to have time to stop the request.
11/15/2004
When accepting a tax levy or garnishment, are we out of compliance with the RFPA if we do not have the person serving the documents initial the document?
04/05/2004
We received a subpoena from the US District Court. It was a request for a business account information of one of our customers. Does this fall under the Right to Financial Privacy Act?
10/06/2003
We have software that can be used to run our customer base against not only the OFAC list, but also a more expansive list. The name list that the software contains in addition to the OFAC list, is an FBI list. My question is this, is the bank required, by any law/regulation/statute, to review any matches other than OFAC list matches? The matches we have appear to be simply common name matches, but obviously I don't want to be out of compliance.