In an effort to reduce identity fraud a group of financial institutions selected by the Social Security Administration will participate in a new electronic consent based Social Security verification service beginning January 2020. Social Security will study how well the new service operates before deciding to expand the service. Below is a news release from Social Security explaining the new system.
The Social Security Administration today announced the first potential group of selected participants for its new electronic Consent Based Social Security Number (SSN) Verification (eCBSV) service. The agency will roll out the service to these users in June 2020, and plans on expanding the number of users within approximately six months of the initial rollout.
“Our new electronic SSN verification service will help to reduce synthetic identity fraud by comparing data provided electronically by approved participants with the agency’s records,” said Andrew Saul, Commissioner of Social Security. “This will provide fast, secure, and more efficient SSN verifications for the financial services industry and customers using their services.”
Social Security is creating eCBSV, a fee-based electronic SSN verification service, to allow select financial institutions and service providers, called “permitted entities” and including subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, subcontractors, or assignees of a financial institution, to verify if a person’s SSN, name, and date of birth combination matches Social Security records. Social Security needs the person’s written consent and will accept an electronic signature in order to disclose the SSN verification to the permitted entity. eCBSV returns a match verification of “Yes” or “No.” eCBSV does not verify a person’s identity.
The 10 participants selected for the initial rollout are:
- American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
- Capital One Services, LLC
- Computer Information Development, LLC
- Discover Financial Services
- Early Warning Services, LLC
- Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
- ID Analytics, LLC
- Navy Federal Credit Union
- SentiLink Corp.
- Synchrony Financial
Each of the service providers selected can serve up to 20 permitted entities, with the potential of 124 permitted entities participating in the initial rollout. This announcement does not affect the existing Consent Based SSN Verification service. For more information, see www.socialsecurity.gov/dataexchange/eCBSV/.
