Topic: Record Retention
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How long must we retain contracts for deeds?
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We recommend retaining documents related to real property, including contracts for deeds, for a period of ten years after the property is sold, due to Illinois’s ten-year statute of limitations for written contracts. This retention period should apply to any documents that may be relevant in a dispute over a contract for deed and any…
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What is an appropriate record retention period for original medallion paperwork? Would you recommend the same retention period for virtual copies? We reached out to the Securities Transfer Agents Medallion Program (STAMP), and they stated: “Time of retention is a decision made by the institution itself in accord with your own legal, risk management and audit procedures.”
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We are not aware of any law that directly addresses the retention period for documents related to medallion signature guarantees, other than the SEC’s requirement that securities transfer agents retain records related to rejected transfers for three years following the date of rejection. That said, a medallion signature guarantee creates unique, direct liability on the…
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Our Truth in Savings policy states that we retain microfiche permanently. Is there a required retention period for microfiche? We would like to remove this from our policy.
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Regulation DD, which implements the Truth in Savings Act, requires financial institutions to “retain evidence of compliance . . . for a minimum of two years after the date disclosures are required to be made or action is required to be taken.” Regulation DD’s Official Interpretations mention microfiche only to state that “[r]ecords evidencing compliance…
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Does the IBA have an all-inclusive trust department document retention schedule? If not, are you aware of any other guides containing this information?
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The IBA does sell a Guide to Bank Record Retention, which contains recommended retention periods for trust-related documents based on state and federal law, but it has not been updated since 2014, and some of the information in the manual now is out-of-date. We are not aware of any other guides containing such information. If…
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Our bank wants to implement a chatbot for routine customer interactions and general inquiries. Is there any guidance on what a chatbot can and cannot say? Are there any compliance concerns we should be aware of? For how long do we need to retain the chat scripts?
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We are not aware of any federal or state guidance specifying what a chatbot can and cannot say to a customer. The federal banking agencies issued a request for information on financial institutions’ use of artificial intelligence, including chatbots, in March 2021 (with descriptions of some of the related risks), but they have not followed…
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We have two approaches to keeping records of the times when customers access their safety deposit boxes. Some of our branches have an electric time stamp. At the branches that lack electronic time stamps, our employees handwrite the date and time when customers access their boxes. Both methods are documented in our written procedures as acceptable. If we present evidence of safety deposit box access in a court proceeding, would there be any concerns about the validity of our handwritten records as opposed to the time-stamped records?
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No, we would not anticipate any issues concerning the validity of handwritten records of safe deposit box access solely because such records are handwritten. We are not aware of any law or regulation stating that handwritten records should be viewed any more or less favorably than electronically generated records. For example, the Illinois Rules of…
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Do you have an updated record retention schedule for ATM envelopes, night drop logs, and fraud dispute paperwork?
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The IBA does sell a Guide to Bank Record Retention, but it has not been updated since 2014, and some of the information in the manual may be out-of-date. The guide recommends retaining ATM deposit envelopes for two years after the date the record is made if there is no deposit slip and the envelope…
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Can you provide us with a record retention chart? We are looking for the retention period on items that would typically be found in a commercial loan file, such as tax returns and personal financial statements. Also, is there a different retention period for an individual tax return, as opposed to a business tax return, when maintained in a loan file?
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The IBA does sell a Guide to Bank Record Retention, but it has not been updated since 2014, and some of the information in the manual now is out-of-date. We are not aware of any record retention requirements specific to tax returns maintained in a loan file (whether they belong to a person or a…