Banks

Information:

Washington’s Address Confidentiality Program is administered by the Office of the Washington Secretary of State. Participants of the ACP have extremely high security needs. They are assigned an alternate address to keep their physical addresses confidential to help ensure their personal safety and the safety of their families.

The United States Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) acknowledges the need to protect victim anonymity. On November 3, 2009 FinCEN authorized an exemption for participants enrolled in address confidentiality programs (ACPs).  Participants are not obligated to provide their actual home address on bank records as required by the USA PATRIOT ACT.

Under 31 U.S.C. § 5318(a)(5) and 31 C.F.R. § 103.55(a), FinCEN authorizes the following exception to the requirement that a financial institution obtain a customer's residential or business street address to participants in the ACP. The participant shall be treated as not having a residential or business street address and a secretary of state, serving as a designated agent of the customer consistent with the terms of the ACP, will act as another contact individual for the purpose of complying with FinCEN's rules. Therefore, a financial institution should collect the street address of the ACP sponsoring agency for purposes of meeting its CIP address requirement.

For more information, please contact the ACP at (360) 753-2972.