IBA Compliance Connection

Your go to source for compliance!

We have a customer who passed away. An individual has called us several times wanting information about this customer’s safe deposit box. Can we tell her that the customer did not have safe deposit box account at our bank? This individual did not produce any documentation establishing herself as the executor of this customer’s estate.

—

by

admin

We do not recommend disclosing to this individual that the customer did not have a safe deposit box account at your bank.

Regulation P’s privacy requirements prohibit your bank from disclosing “the fact that an individual is or has been one of your customers or has obtained a financial product or service from you.” In our view, this broad language also prohibits your bank from disclosing that a customer has not obtained a particular product or service from you.

Of course, Regulation P does permit your bank to disclose a customer’s account information to his or her lawful representative, such as an executor of an estate. However, in this case, the individual requesting the information has not presented documentation establishing herself in such a role.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

  • Regulation P, 12 CFR 1016.10(a)(1) (“Except as otherwise authorized in this part, you may not, directly or through any affiliate, disclose any nonpublic personal information about a consumer to a nonaffiliated third party . . . .”)

  • Regulation P, 12 CFR 1016.3(p)(1)(i) (“Nonpublic personal information means . . . Personally identifiable financial information . . . .”)

  • Regulation P, 12 CFR 1016.3(q)(2)(i)(C) (“Personally identifiable financial information includes . . . The fact that an individual is or has been one of your customers or has obtained a financial product or service from you . . . .”)

  • Regulation P, 12 CFR 1016.15(a)(2)(v) (A bank may disclose nonpublic personal information “to persons acting in a fiduciary or representative capacity on behalf of the consumer . . . .”)