Asking Too Much Personal Information?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I had basic checking accounts at Bank “A” .
Bank “A” , a small bank, was bought by Bank “B”, a medium-sized bank.

My accounts at Bank “A” were opened with adherence to the Patriot Act. I have had the accounts for over 7 years.

I received a letter from Bank “B” recently (Bank “B” is owned by a large Insurance Company) requesting much, much personal information “to ensure compliance with the Dodd-Frank bank reform legislation.” Bank “B” is requesting my name, address, DOB, SSN, Driver’s License Number, Employment status, Occupation, Employer’s name and address, how I will use my accounts, Deposit activities that are likely to be seen on my accounts, Withdrawal activities that are likely to be seen on my accounts and if I will ever send/receive wire transfers.

I checked the “Dodd-Frank” reform legislation and read summaries of it online. Nowhere do I see the necessity of a requirement of a bank customer to provide all of the information requested above. Please note that I am NOT requesting any loans from Bank “B” or credit/debit cards from Bank “B”.

This seems like a sneaky way for Bank “B” to obtain more personal information from me to suit their marketing.

Has anyone else ever been requested by their bank to provide any of the above information when all they have with the bank is a basic checking account?

I can’t see any reference that the Dodd-Frank legislation pertains to bank customers. It seems to be more of a safeguard for banking/financial institutions to help avoid the financial industry mess that we have just experienced a few years back.

I don’t feel that it is Bank “B’s” business to ask for my Driver’s License number, employment status and employer information. I think that they are fishing for information for their own marketing purposes. Bank “B” is owned by a large Insurance Agency (car, house, etc).

Any advice or opinions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

2

Hm, print out the details of the Dodd-Frank and highlight the required information, and politely decline to give any further information to the bank, remind them that you are already in compliance with the Patriot Act, and prepare to find another bank [or as I prefer, a credit union.]

3

Check the small print on the letter. Somewhere in there it may say that some or all of the questions are just there for marketing purposes and don’t need to be answered.

4

Make sure it truly came from your bank!

5

All of this was required for a bank account I opened 20 years ago. I always figured it was simple identifying information. The questions about how you’re going to use your account seem a little fishy though.

6

OTOH, asking how you’re going to use your account, what type of deposits and withdrawls you’re going to make and how big/often they’re going to be helps the bank to make sure you’re in the right type of account and makes sure that they can lock your account of something goes wrong. For example, if all you do is make 4 deposits a month, write 2 checks and have 10 ACH withdrawls, you shouldn’t be paying $15 a month for an account that’s designed to have up to 200 checks per month written off of it.
Also, if you tell them you’ll never have a withdrawal of more then $1000, they’ll call you if someone shows up with a check for $5000 or tries to wire out $10,000.

7

Here are some sentences from the letter:

“To ensure that _______ Bank complies with Federal bank regulatory requirements, specifically the Dodd-Frank bank reform legislation enacted by Congress in 2011, we need you to complete the enclosed information update and return it to _____ Bank in the prepaid enclosed envelope on or before April 26. The information request is for _____ Bank purposes only and will not be shared with outside parties as explained in our enclosed privacy policy.
In the event that you do not provide the requested information by Friday, April 26, additional controls may be placed on your bank account access.
_____ Bank is committed to delivering the continued personalized service that you’ve been accustomed to with Bank “A” . We thank you in advance for your time and help in updating the Bank’s records.”
It sounds to be an attempt to fish for personal information to be used for marketing purposes by the Bank. I think that the Dodd-Frank reference was thrown in there to blow smoke.

8

Thank you for the reply and I do understand it. However, I have accounts at other (different) banks for 10-15 years and have never had them come back asking all of this other information.

9

I’m one of those people that says ‘so what if it is’. Big deal, you’ll get an extra piece of mail three times a year asking you if you want to open a new checking account or line of credit. Throw it out. Move on with life.

10

I’m tiring of the big behomoths asking for personal information and expecting it to be handed to them. Who knows where the information really goes? I obey the laws and live a private life. I do not want to give out personal information to whatever big machine wants it just so they can have it.

11

Asking questions usually slows this down a bit. “please explain which regulations require you to collect this information and please provide more details about the ‘additional conrols’ you are proposing for my account. This may be something I am interested in as a feature for my account. I appreciate your efforts to provide personalized service, please give me the name and number of someone who can discuss all this with me, perhaps over a cup of coffee.”

12

I’m not clear why everyone seems to think these questions are a marketing ploy. I have several thousand transactions a year in my main account due to my side ebay business. These personal profiling questions are quite obviously meant to be used to detect fraud via patterns of unusual activity on the account. If you don’t want to give the info the bank will probably lock down or otherwise require personal confirmation via a call from you before it will approve more unusual activities like wire transfers etc.

As many scamsters and ID thieves are banging on your bank accounts night and day I would be all for this patterning, hell I might pay extra for it.

13

Thank you, Procrustus. I like that approach.

14

I get waaaay too much “extra” mail every year. Because this isn’t just one bank. Then I get crap from all the banks, and Discover card (which sends me weekly fucking advert despite already being a customer) and my insurance company and my other credit card and my banks and…etc.

I don’t need more of it. Especially since I need to shred a lot of it, not throw it away.

15

You can tell your creditors to cease sending solicitations like those checks for balance transfers, offers for life insurance, and they will. Just call.
I haven’t had any in at least 5 years now. It’s great!

I still say the OP should phone the bank and verify whether this letter was actually sent by them and not some 3rd party trying to get a reply with ID theft useful info. If so, then gripe, otherwise, trash it.

16

If you’re really concerned, go to the bank and request to speak with a manager. Tell them your concerns (try not to look or sound crazy, leave your tinfoil cap at home, etc) and ask them if the information is really required. If it is required, then you can either give them the information and keep the account, or ask them to close the account. Then take your money to another small local bank or a credit union.

17

But it’s none of their business whether you are making the best use of the account or not. All they should simply do is gently remind you that they have ‘experts’ who can help you make the most of your finances.

That’s all, leave it up to you…

18

Seems to me like they’re asking way to much information.

I like the idea that they could know how you will use the account, so they could catch possible fraud. But it should be optional.

My bank, similar to my credit cards, offers some on-line options. I can pick-and-choose various events (like a check for over a certain amount, or a withdrawal over a certain amount, or various other options), and when such an event happens, the bank sends me a robo-email to notify me. That suits me just fine.

ETA: They call those “account alerts” or something like that.

19

The various regulators often require various banks to increase their “KYC” measures. This appears to be one of these. There is nothing suspicious or unusual about this. You, as a layman, might be able to read the summaries of the bill, but I doubt if you have read all the enabling regulations and various regulatory agencies rulings on them.

Yes, these are valid questions. Yes, soon, bank by bank, we will all have to answer these questions or some very much like them. Get used to it.

It’s a standard banking KYC measure.

Note that I am ACAMs certified in this field.