Transcript of the above video:

This is pretty big news at the moment regarding Social Security as it pertains to Americans specifically. And this is basically sort of an informational video for the retiree community here in Thailand specifically the American expats out there, so I hope this information is useful. Let me be clear, this should not be viewed as exhaustive. I am basically trying to give folks a heads up. We don't make a ton of videos on Social Security specifically. Social Security comes up tangentially in what we do here at the firm involving things like Retirement Visas; we sometimes assist people with liaising with the Social Security Administration. There is not an office here in Thailand as discussed in other videos, although there is a major office down in the Philippines and from time to time we assist, but it usually comes up in a tangential manner here in Thailand, so something to bear in mind with regard to that  

But this was brought to my attention from a couple of viewers in different forms and it is much appreciated. I'm referencing the Social Security, so the SSA Emergency Message release and the code if you will, sort of to track this down yourself and read it yourself is EM25046; and specifically, I am not even going to read directly from it. I went ahead and pulled up Google AI, I am going to throw this up on screen. Again, I want folks to understand, I am doing this more as an ALERT for folks, as a heads up as to what's going on here and if you are interested in this, you are probably going to want to do further research on it for yourself. 

That said, from the AI overview: "EM25046 (that's the reference number) is the identifier for an emergency message from the Social Security Administration that details a new verification policy for financial institution accounts, effective August 1, 2025, which grants the agency more direct and continuous access to the bank accounts of some SSI recipients age 65 and older." So direct and continuous access. And again, I kept hearing the acronym AFI so Access to Financial Information associated with this a lot as well. Quoting further: "The policy aims to prevent improper payments and fraud by allowing the SSA to monitor bank account activity and verify resource limits more effectively, and the agency intends to expand the policy's scope to other beneficiary groups in the future.

EM25046 is an internal SSA emergency message released on August 1, 2025. It provides new instructions for SSA technicians regarding how to access financial institution (bank) accounts. 

What does this new policy do? It allows SSA technicians to access bank accounts and other financial records without the usual restrictions on the amount of liquid resources a recipient can have. This gives the SSA continuous and repetitive access to monitor account activity."

Quoting further: "Why was this policy implemented? To reduce payment errors and improper payments, especially for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. To prevent recipients from exceeding resource limits and to detect potential fraud. 

Who does it currently affect? All SSI recipients age 65 and older." 

So look most of the retiree Community here in Thailand, the expat retiree community, is going to likely be impacted by this, so I felt like it was important to make a video on this and try to get it out as soon as possible. I hope this information is useful to folks and again I urge those who are watching this video, go do your own research on this. The big question here is how is this going to impact banks in Thailand? As we have discussed in other videos, there are specific types of bank accounts with specific parameters associated therewith, specific terms, most notably, no remote banking, no digital banking, not even ATM access to those accounts. You have to deal with them in person, as I have discussed in other videos, in order to have money dropped into those accounts. The question remains is this access policy going to pertain to those accounts as well as in the United States? This is all difficult to say at this time, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.