Topic: Requests for Financial Information
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Can we charge a research/reproduction fee for our efforts in responding to a large subpoena document request?
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The Illinois Banking Act’s privacy provisions allow for reimbursement of your costs, with some limitations: (g) A bank shall be reimbursed for costs that are reasonably necessary and that have been directly incurred in searching for, reproducing, or transporting books, papers, records, or other data of a customer required or requested to be produced pursuant…
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What is the Illinois law on responding to subpoenas? Is it always mandatory to respond to a subpoena?
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Generally, a subpoena from the federal government must be honored once the bank receives a written certificate of compliance from the governmental authority. Customer privacy is generally not an issue, as federal and Illinois privacy laws allow banks to disclose customer financial records in response to a subpoena, subject to the limitations discussed below. 205…
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We received a non-wage garnishment summons, but the summons lists deposit accounts that may include some of the customer’s wages. Can we put holds on the deposit accounts that are listed in the summons?
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We do not believe that the bank would be prohibited from freezing amounts attributable to wages. The use of the phrase “nonwage garnishment” in the notice you received differentiates garnishment of the debtor’s property (that is, her deposit account) from direct garnishment of her wages, which would be accomplished by serving a wage deduction notice…
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We are looking into the new rules protecting federal benefit payments from garnishment. Do these protections apply if we receive a tax levy on an account from the IRS?
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New rules protecting federal benefits from garnishment establish the procedures by which financial institutions must identify and protect those benefit payments from freezing and garnishment. 31 CFR 212.6. These procedures require banks to perform an account review within two days of being served with the garnishment notice to locate benefit payments made within the lookback…
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Can we exercise a right of offset in a customer’s deposit account after receiving a notice of lien from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (IHFS)?
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If your bank had a right of set-off prior to the IHFS lien, your bank’s right of set-off would trump the IHFS lien. The Illinois Public Aid Code makes such liens (for past-due child support) subordinate to a bank’s prior rights of set-off: “(h) A lien created under this Section is subordinate to . .…
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We have an elderly customer who is asking for a picture that was taken at one of our ATM facilities by the security camera. The gentleman claims that a caretaker took money out of his account, and he wants the picture as proof. We can match the date and time of the picture with the withdrawal, but even so, should we provide it to him?
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In our view, your bank should consider the “bigger picture” and not voluntarily provide the photograph to its customer, because by doing so, it could open itself up to a host of liability issues. Instead, the bank should tell the customer that it will only provide such information in response to a lawful subpoena or…