Our customer due diligence form asks for a customer’s job title, place of employment, and length of employment. Are we required to collect this information, and is it necessary for both consumer and business accounts?

No, we do not believe you must ask for a customer’s job title, place of employment, and length of employment before opening a consumer or business account, but we believe it is common to collect this information for certain customer risk profiles and for purposes of filing suspicious activity reports (SARs) and currency transaction reports (CTRs).

FinCEN’s CIP requirements for account openings do not require banks to obtain information related to an individual’s occupation at account opening. However, the FFIEC’s BSA/AML Manual recommends that banks “gather sufficient information about the customer to form an understanding of the nature and purpose of customer relationships at the time of account opening.” Further, you will need to record the customer’s occupation or type of business in the event you are required to file a SAR or CTR on the customer. Consequently, you may not be able to develop a sufficient risk profile or file a SAR or CTR without gathering information related to a customer’s occupation.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

FinCEN CIP Regulations, 31 CFR 1020.220(a)(2)(i)(A) (“[T]he bank must obtain, at a minimum, the following information from the customer prior to opening an account:

(1) Name;

(2) Date of birth, for an individual;

(3) Address, which shall be:

(i) For an individual, a residential or business street address;

(ii) For an individual who does not have a residential or business street address, an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) box number, or the residential or business street address of next of kin or of another contact individual; or

(iii) For a person other than an individual (such as a corporation, partnership, or trust), a principal place of business, local office, or other physical location; and

(4) Identification number, which shall be:

(i) For a U.S. person, a taxpayer identification number; or

(ii) For a non-U.S. person, one or more of the following: A taxpayer identification number; passport number and country of issuance; alien identification card number; or number and country of issuance of any other government-issued document evidencing nationality or residence and bearing a photograph or similar safeguard.”)

FFIEC BSA/AML Manual, Customer Due Diligence — Overview (“Based on the customer risk profile, the bank may consider obtaining, at account opening (and throughout the relationship), more customer information in order to understand the nature and purpose of the customer relationship, such as: . . . Occupation or type of business (of customer or other individuals with ownership or control over the account).”)

FFIEC BSA/AML Manual, Customer Due Diligence — Overview (“The bank should gather sufficient information about the customer to form an understanding of the nature and purpose of customer relationships at the time of account opening. This understanding may be based on assessments of individual customers or on categories of customers.”)

FinCEN SAR Electronic Filing Requirements User Guide, page 148 (August 2021) (“Item 10 Occupation or type of business: Record the occupation, profession, or type of business of the individual or entity recorded in Part I.”)

FinCEN CTR Electronic Filing Requirements User Guide, page 97 (August 2021) (“Item 9 Occupation or type of business: Record the occupation, profession, or type of business of the individual or entity recorded in Part I.”)