CIP Requirements & Foreign College Students

First, follow whatever requirements you find in your bank's Customer Identification Program. If they are more demanding than the regulatory requirements, your bank's rules take precedence. The regulatory requirements are that you obtain the individual's name, identifying number, residential address and date of birth and complete whatever verification of the individual's identity your bank deems appropriate to satisfy the bank that it knows the individual's true identity. The identifying number for a foreign student might be the number of his/her passport from their home country, an alien ID number issued by the U.S. government or the "number and country of issuance of any other government-issued document evidencing nationality or residence and bearing a photograph or similar safeguard." Your bank decides which numbers it will use and which forms of ID you will accept to help substantiate the individual's identity.

First published on BankersOnline.com 10/15/07