Patriot Act | Privacy Policy
On October 26, 2001, President Bush signed into law the USA Patriot Act. The purpose of this law is to help protect you, your family and our country from terrorism by preventing terrorist financing. In section 326 of this act, it states that we are now required to:
1. Verify the identity of any person seeking to open an account, to the extent reasonable and practicable,
2. Maintain records of the information used to verify the person’s identity, including name, address, and other identifying information; and
3. Determine whether the person appears on any lists of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist organizations provided to the financial institution by any government agency.
We must also verify the identity of members and non-members added as joint owners and have access to new or existing share accounts and loans.
If you are an existing member who joined the credit union before the USA Patriot Act rules became effective, we may also need to verify and retain copies of any documents used to verify your identity when you request a new deposit account, apply for a loan or are added as a joint owner to a new or existing share of loan account.
Effective September 17th, 2003, the Board of Directors of Bashas’ Associates Federal Credit Union passed the Customer Identification Program (C.I.P.) to assure compliance with this new regulation. The credit union’s C.I.P. will consist of policies and procedures to comply with the above-mentioned requirements. Accounts covered by this new policy will include all formal, on-going account relationships established as share, checking, certificate of deposit (CD’s), or other savings accounts, as well as loan account relationships.
How Does This Affect You, Our Members
BAFCU requires the following information on ALL accounts or changes to existing account ownerships:
1. Name
2. Date of Birth
3. Address
4. Identification number
5. Copy of government issued ID
We will then retain this information throughout the life of the account, and for five years after this account is closed. The credit union will also take reasonable steps to verify the required information as required by the Treasure Department’s C.I.P. regulations.
If you have any questions regarding this new regulation, please feel free to discuss them with any staff member of the credit union. We ask for your understanding as we work to support these efforts to maintain security of your funds and our country.
