Banks, credit unions and other financial institutions often need to print documents during the course of day-to-day business. This paperwork often contains private, sensitive financial and personal information about customers. Destroying these documents properly is essential for maintaining customer trust and privacy. Here are a few ways you can ensure sensitive paperwork doesn't end up in the wrong hands.

Ban Paper In Wastebaskets

One of the easiest ways to monitor whether or not your staff is throwing away paperwork that might contain sensitive information is to completely ban paper from being placed in any wastebasket. By limiting the use of wastebaskets to wrappers, cups or other non-business related trash, you can prevent secure documents from being accidentally discarded. You can discourage customers from placing receipts or deposit information in the trash by placing small recycling bins next to the wastebaskets in the public areas of your institution.

Use Plastic Paper Bins

Your staff members will need to discard paperwork throughout the day. Place plastic bins under or next to each workstation and have your employees place any paperwork that needs to be discarded in the bins. These should be placed at every teller window as well as in every office. At the end of each day, have your employees place the documents in a secure indoor dumpster that is secured with a lock. This keeps all sensitive paperwork locked up until it can be properly disposed of and ensures all customer information is secure at all times. These indoor dumpsters should be placed behind any security gates or doors you have in your building to add an extra layer of protection for when your building is not open to the public.

Contract With A Shredding Service

Once you have a plan for securing documents in place, you'll need to contract with a company, such as Vital Records Control, to have them destroyed. A document shredding service can ensure that each piece of paper is properly shredded so that no customer information can be retrieved from each document. The service can come to your financial institution on a set schedule to empty out your secure dumpsters and transport your documents for shredding at another location. Be sure to look for a service that offers recycling of your paper waste as part of your company's mission to help the environment. You can also use this as a marketing tool by advertising that your company is dedicated to recycling 100 percent of its paper waste, which can help to bolster your brand's image with people who take conservation seriously.

Work with your shredding service to come up with other ideas for eliminating the risk of secure paperwork being thrown away, and make sure that every piece of paper that is printed in your financial institution makes its way to your shredding service.