Banking Information - Protection for Participants with Financial Institutions

On November 3, 2009 the United States Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fin CEN), authorized an exemption for participants in address confidentiality programs from the usual Bank Secrecy Act requirement that people provide their actual residential address for financial institutions account records.

When you enrolled in the Safe at Home program your address changed to your designated Safe at Home mailing address for state and local entities. Now you have an added benefit that allows financial institutions to use an alternate address in lieu of your confidential residence address for contact purposes. The new Fin CEN ruling (FIN-2009_R003) allows active participants to use their designated Safe at Home mailing address for mailing and an address designated by the Office of the Secretary of State instead of their actual residence address.

• When opening a new account or updating your address on an existing account
• Additional Information

When opening a new account or updating your address on an existing account:

• Visit your local financial institution in person.
• Let the financial institution representative know you are in the Safe at Home program and show your Safe at Home Authorization ID card.
• For mailing purposes give them your Name, Safe at Home Authorization ID Number, and your designated Safe at Home mailing address.
• If you elect to use the Secretary of State address instead of your confidential residence address:
  • Inform the representative that you are in the Safe at Home program and want to use the new ruling to change the residence address on file.
  • The representative will contact our office to verify that you are active in the program.
  • For security reasons, Safe at Home staff will ask to speak with the participant prior to giving any information to the representative.
  • Safe at Home will provide an address to the financial institution that can be used in lieu of your residence address.

Additional Information:

• The address provided by Safe at Home to the financial institution cannot be used for mail receipt.
• By law Safe at Home is only required to forward mail received at your designated Safe at Home mailing address and service of process must be delivered to the Secretary of State's office address.
• Mail sent to the address provided will be returned to sender.
• If you have any questions, please contact Safe at Home at (877) 322-5227. For more information about the ruling, refer to the Department of Treasury Memo at: http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/guidance/pdf/fin-2009-r003.pdf .