Does the state of Tennessee prohibit photocopying a state-issued drivers license for customer identification?

There are several places where the state indicates it will not accept photocopies of ID, but I'm not aware of anyplace where they prohibit making a copy. Making copies of identification is a common, albeit unnecessary, practice in banks.

All banks are required to do for CIP purposes is keep a "description" of the identification they received. While a photocopy would certainly suffice for a description, so would "Tennessee drivers license, Exp XX/XX/XXXX, number XXXXXXXXX."

There is a much touted prohibition against photocopying military ID. In reality, it was intended only to provide leverage against people who were creating fraudulent military ID. However, military personnel oftentimes believe the "prohibition" is the gospel and get excited when a bank wants to make a copy. Accordingly, it's better just to write down the description.

Here is a release from the Navy that explains the military ID photocopy prohibition:

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=63581

Uh-huh, they get excited.

The reason I ask: There is a provision in the recently passed S 2155 that allows banks to make and retain a copy of a driver's license when an account is opened online. It then says that if the bank makes or receives a copy of the driver's license, we must permanently delete the image after using it, "except as required to comply with Federal bank secrecy laws". If our practice is to retain a copy of the image, what does this mean for us?

I pulled the House's report on this section to get a background on this. It states this was passed to align state requirements on photocopying identification, and specified that several states, such as Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Tennessee currently prohibit making and retaining copies of driver's licenses. I've never heard such a thing!

https://www.congress.gov/115/crpt/hrpt523/CRPT-115hrpt523.pdf

David Kustoff from Tennessee is on that committee. I suggest you ask his office for a citation to law or regulation for that statement, but do them the courtesy of saying why you are asking.

I believe the bill referenced has to do with mobile (online) account opening. We do not open accounts online. Tennessee does not prohibit banks from retaining a copy of the identification used to open an account. We do not copy military ids so if that is the identification presented, we request another form of identification if they have one. If not, we will document the information from the military id. In most cases, the person presenting the military id will have another form of identification (it may be a driver's license from another state but if it is valid and has a picture we will accept it). The document is scanned and made available to bank staff and is used mainly by the tellers to identify customers and try to prevent fraud. (We have a lot of teller turnover so it's helpful to the new teller who does not know Mr. Jones who comes in every Friday.)