We have a CIP process of using a third party vendor to match the SSN against the SSA database and the Death master List as well as perform a OFAC check. The vendor also cpmpletes a report listing aka's/previous addresses/and Other Individuals liked by SSN.

We are having a debate with our Loan processors regarding how to handle customers who knowingly have not changed their maiden name on their SS card. They are still using their maiden name for their business but have gotten married and are now using their married name as well.

As long as we have identified them as who they are do we care that they are using both names but have not legally addressed it with the SSA?

Just to play devil's (read: lender's) advocate, who cares what the SSA has on file? What does that have to do with your ability to form a "reasonable" belief regarding your customer's identity? And if you have TIN, date of birth, and physical address all verified, there's not much reason to care what last name the customer chooses to use this week (assuming your policy allows for sufficient/reasonable verification in lieu of 100% all CIP elements verification).

Deh

Your issue here is not CIP, as Maytagman has so eloquently explained. Your issue, which predates CIP, is IRS information reporting, i.e 1099-INT, 1099-MISC, 1098, etc. If you report and continue to report to IRS with the wrong name and SSN combination, you will get slapped with a $50 fine per occurrence. That's why we bankers have been so trained to always input the name and SSN into our databases the way that it appears on the card and in your case, in the maiden name. But by doing so, it then causes account signature cards and loan documents to be created using a name that is not her legal name (her married one), which is a problem for attorneys who might have to represent us. That's why we bankers for so long have insisted that the SSN card be changed to their legal name. Not to mention, that's what SSA prefers anyway.

So CIP is not the issue; information reporting is.

Thanks for playing Devil's Advocate but why wouldn't we care! That is where the TIN Database is maintained for our government identity. This is what proves we have paid our taxes and it is the number that identifies us with our government....

This person is signing loan agreements with a name that is not in the government database. I assume as long as we know the person with the TIN has a marriage cert. we can prove the married name as well.

If they are secondary on the loan we would not be reporting them on the 1098. You can't force a person to correct their SS Card can you? Supposedly this person has been doing this and perfers to leave her business separate from her marriage without applying for EIN. I though this was not our issue but one she would take up with her accountant.

Warning...More advocate persona here and/or a mini-rant coming up...no offense to other posters, yeah?

Hold on now..."government identity?" Many people would say they have no such thing, or that they have a right to have a lack of such an "identity" (http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl17b.shtml
for similar hot air, or any other number of similar outsider/dissenter sites). Many would say that the SSN law specifically prohibits it from being used as a form of "government identity." Besides, the IRS mini-fine issue ($50?, please...we're walking in a world of potential fines of millions per day...I take a "risk-based" approach) only comes up if the person pays you interest or receives interest from you in excess of $10 per year, right? I don't know about yours, but our 0.00003% rates won't generate over $10 in interest for the vast majority of our maiden name customers. In any case, I wouldn't refuse an account because of the married name thing...I'd just let her know she might miss her next tax stimulus check if she doesn't get it corrected (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gUxXSsCeP0dJius73XbdoreoWVPAD93QF2EG8).

Lucy likes being married, but not for an extended period of time and she, through marriage and divorce, has been Lucy White, then Brown, then Black, and finally, Blue. Her SSN will match with any one of those names as long as she has kept SSA up to date. Thus, if she does, you don't have an IRS reporting issue. On the other hand, if she keeps them in the dark on her serial monogomy, her SSN will still match to Lucy White; i.e. there will be no IRS reporting issue or penalty assessment.

As long as you have a reasonable belief that she is who she says she is, you don't have a BSA issue either. As a personal opinion, I suggest you require that any account you open must be in the name for which she has valid identification, but I would not push her to produce a conforming SS card.

Outside of any expertise that I would claim, I suggest your issue concerns the validity/priority of your security interest if it is not filed on the "best" or "most accurate" name your borrower has.

The problem here, Ken, is that our bank's core systems do the information reporting. So that reporting is done correctly, i.e. Lucy White, then you have to set it up that way in the system, which means that you have to generate the signature card in the doc prep system the same way, because the core system takes the upload from the doc prep system.

Do you have the ability to modify an "IRS NAME" field? For example, how does your core system report "The Estate of Jane Johnson" as JOHN for IRS reporting? Maybe that could be an option.