Federal Subpoena for Business Customer Records

Question:

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?

Answer:

RFPA protects "persons" which means an individual or a partnership of five or fewer individuals. If your business is a corporation, regardless of the number of shareholders, the protections are inapplicable. If the partnership has 6 or more partners, the protections are inapplicable. LLC's did not exist at the time the RFPA was passed, but the most conservative approach would be to treat them as a partnership and count the number of members.

First published on BankersOnline.com 04/5/04