Most banks are citing compliance with Sections 352 and 326 of the Patriot Act. Section 326 is entitled Customer Identification Program. So I looked it up and here it is in PDF form:

http://www.compliancesystems.com/USA...TACT5_2003.pdf

Pay special attention to the part under "Verification of Customer Identification" dealing with non-documentary verification. It didnt' let me copy so all I can do is post the link.

Section 352 if you want to read it deals with Terrorism and money laundering etc. The most interesting thing I saw was that under "Protecting the Border" only protecting the Northern border is listed in the summary. I haven't had a chance to read the whole document yet.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/terroris...ot/RL31200.pdf