We just received a call from someone identifying themself as from the Treasury Department. They wanted to know if an ACH payment had posted to a customer's account. Is it wise to give this information out to anyone calling and identifying themself this way? Or what is the best practice here?

As long as they provide the account number, name and amount of the ACH - I think you can say yes or no. It wouldn't be much different than telling someone if a check will clear.

You might check to be sure that your bank doesn't have a policy against providing such information over the phone, however.

Additional information on my original post:
1) Nothing comes up on caller ID when this person calls in (we were hoping for something that actually said "U.S. Treasury"... but that would have been too easy).

2) This same person has called back multiple times apparently, (I'm just finding this out now from Bookkeeping). When this person called before, s/he repeatedly insisted that we give this information immediately, and stated that "the green book" states that banks have to disclose this information upon request.

The whole thing seems odd to me, which is why I am asking this question and hoping someone wiser/more experienced than I will answer. I certainly don't want to withold information from anyone who needs it from the Treasury, but I am concerned about violations of privacy/confidentiality also. We are scrambling around trying to find an officer to answer the question, but it's lunchtime here, so I'm hoping someone from BOL (I love BOL!) will answer. Thanks so much in advance for any help.

3) In the most recent conversation (which we tried to steer to our Cashier/Controller, but he doesn't know what to do with this call either, so we took a message), the person did provide the account number, date, and amount of the ACH.

Thank you so much, LestieG, for your input. Now, I'm just scrambling around trying to find out if we have a policy against giving out this info by phone! Your help is much appreciated.

- Ann Marie (feeling LOTS like a newbie today!)

You're right to question further if the call seems not quite legitimate.

If the caller has the name, account number and ACH amount - they're probably legit, but you might try asking the caller what department they're calling from and where, then trying to contact them by telephone numbers you get from another source.

Thank you so much for all the valuable input. I have turned this issue (along with a printout of this thread!) over to our VP of Compliance/BSA, who is back from lunch, and I'm going to slowly and carefully back away from the phone, lest it bring me any further complex problems today!!!

Prior thread.

It only seems reasonable that if a Treasury employee calls for this purpose and cites the "Green Book" as his or her authority, a simple and complete reference to the section and page of the "Green Book" would help get the message across.

At least then the banker would have no excuse for not knowing about this program. Of course, there is still the matter of confirming the ID of the party calling, but that's usually pretty easy.