Important Information About Opening an Account

To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, Federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify and record information that identifies each person who opens an account.

What This Means for You

When you open an account, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth and other information that allows us to identify you. We will ask to see your driver’s license or other identifying documents.

Why We Ask Questions

When you are conducting bank transactions, a Customer Service Representative or other bank personnel may ask you questions concerning the source, use, or purpose of the transaction. We do this for two very important reasons.

To comply with regulations.

The Bank Secrecy Act requires all banks to have “know your customer” procedures. This includes identification requirements along with the bank understanding the expected nature of your banking transactions. The amount of questions we ask may decrease once your banking activity has been established.

To prevent fraud.

More importantly, we ask these questions to ensure our customers are not being victimized by attempted fraud. Unfortunately, fraud is constantly evolving. Individuals and businesses are targeted by criminals in multiple ways which could result in significant financial loss. Social engineering is used to accomplish malicious and illegal activities through unsuspecting people. Often fraudsters will tell you what to tell the bank, as they know we will ask questions. The best course of action is to be truthful. There are many resources online to help you stay safe. One of these is the Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov.

To summarize.

We comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and the regulations within. At Mid America Bank we take our role seriously in trying to prevent you from
becoming a victim of a fraud. We hope this information explains why we ask questions about your banking activities. If you’d like more information, please speak with the Customer Service Manager.