The Securities Industry Association (SIA)* provides comments to the U.S. Department of Treasury on a proposal relating to recordkeeping and identification. SIA believes no changes should be made to the current regulation that requires the photocopying of government identification documents used to verify a customer’s identity, and preclude reliance on certain forms of foreign government identification. SIA supports the present terms of the rule, which do not require that institutions keep actual copies of documents that are used to verify a customer’s identity. SIA also supports the rule that allows financial institutions to determine which documents they will rely on to verify the identity of a foreign individual opening an account.

*SIFMA is the product of a merger between the Securities Industry Association (SIA) and The Bond Market Association (TBMA) in 2006.