Banks & Shredding – Music To Our Ears
Banks handle a lot of paper, and while we think of money as “green,” improper handling of non-currency documents at a bank can have employees and bank customers seeing red!
Just think of the sheer volume of paper that passes through a bank on a daily basis: checks, deposit slips, credit card statements, loan statements, credit and loan applications, mortgage documents, background checks, credit reports, and mountains of receipts, just to name a few.
There are guidelines in place that clearly designate how long each piece of paper must be kept, and guidelines also exist that dictate how they must be discarded of, as well.
We’ve talked about FACTA (the Fair & Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003), and how its rules apply to financial institutions, and any business or industry that is “significantly engaged” in handling consumer information and providing financial products or services to its customers.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has similar guidelines, laid out in its Safeguard Rule, which requires companies to develop a “written information security plan that describes their program to protect consumer information.”
The Safeguard Rule is flexible, based upon the size of the company, the scope of financial activities, and the type of data it handles.
One aspect of the rule is very clear, however: once the retention deadline has passed, any and all consumer information that exceeds the retention age must be disposed of in such a way that it “cannot be read or reconstructed.”
Paper documents at a bank that require shredding include:
- checks
- deposit slips
- bank statements
- loan agreements
- credit card information
- credit/loan applications
- mortgage statements
- misprinted documents
- and more…
Banks also must destroy electronic access to documents, passwords, etc., often stored on hard drives (preferably on computers without access to an Internet connection).
EcoShredding is a Mobile Document Destruction Company, specializing in disposing of documents – including paper and computer hard drives – required to be destroyed in accordance with FACTA and FTC Safeguard Rules guidelines.
What’s more, EcoShredding maintains our knowledge of and compliance with all Federal guidelines, so we are your trusted 3rd Party Service Provider, for document shredding and destruction. And we perform this service on-site for additional peace of mind.
We’re responsive, reliable, and locally owned and operated, and we look forward to serving all of your shredding needs!
