Thread: U.S. Patriot Act and Bank of America Actions

Ok, How can our financial institutions ignore this patriot act provision which guards against anyone with an unverifiable identity (illegal aliens) opening a bank account in our country? Are there any legal beagles to investigate this?

USA PATRIOT Act, Title III, Subtitle A

Sec. 326. Verification of identification
The Secretary of the Treasury was given the task of prescribing regulations that set forth the minimum standards that financial institutions must undertake to verify the identity of customers who open accounts.[43] The rules implementing section 326 became effective on June 9, 2003, although financial institutions had until October 1, 2003 to come into compliance.[44]The minimum requirements under the section require financial institutions to establish procedures to take reasonable and practicable measures to verify the identity of those applying for an account with the institution;[45] maintain records of the information used to verify a person's identity, including name, address, and other identifying information;[46] and to consult lists of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist organizations provided to the financial institution by any government agency to determine whether a person seeking to open an account appears on any such list. [47] When prescribing the regulations, the Secretary was ordered to take into account the types of accounts available to financial institutions, the various methods someone can use to open accounts, and the various types of identifying information available to the institutions. [48]

Under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, banks and other financial institutions are restricted from carrying out activities that do not relate to financial activities.[49][50] In these cases, the regulations must be prescribed jointly by the Secretary and each Federal functional regulator[51] appropriate for such financial institution.[52] The Secretary also has the power to exempt such instutitions from the regulations proscribed under section 326.[53]

The section also required a report with 6 months of the enactment of the Patriot Act from the Secretary of Treasury in consultation with Federal functional regulators as defined in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. As such, on July 23, 2002 the Department of Treasury, FinCEN, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) jointly released a joint notice of rule-making in the Federal Register for banks,[54] and Treasury simultaneously released an identical notice in the Federal Register for credit unions, private banks and trust companies who did not have a functional regulator.[55] After a considerable response, alterations to the proposed rule making were made and Treasury and the Federal functional agencies released 31 CFR 103.121. The regulation sets out the minimum requirements for setting up a Customer Identification Program (CIP). These requirements for the CIP are that it must:

be appropriate for the financial institution's size and type of business, and if it must have an anti-money laundering compliance program then the CIP must be part of this. Credit Unions, private banks and trust companies without a Federal functional regulator must have a CIP approved by their board of directors,
have identity verification procedures. These must include risk-based procedures that allow the bank to form a reasonable belief that it knows the indentities of each customer. The regulation specifies what is required to identify a customer. If a customer does not provide sufficient information to allow their verification the CIP must include procedures the bank must undertake. The procedures must cover (1) circumstances when the bank cannot verify the customer's identity; (2) should cover circumstances when the bank should not open an account; (3) specify what terms in which a customer may use an account while the bank tries to verify the customer's identity; (4) when a bank should close an account after being unable to verify a customer's identity; and (5) when a bank should file a Suspicious Activity Report,
have procedures for making and maintaining a record of all verification information gathered by the financial institution,
have procedures for determining whehter a customer appears on any government list of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist organisations — the bank must determine this within a "reasonable time",
have procedures for giving adequate notice to customers that the bank is requesting information to verify their identities, and
have procedures that specify when another financial institution will rely on another financial institution to perform any of the procedures set out in their CIP
The regulation allows any Federal regulator, in concurrence with the Secretary of Treasury, to exempt a bank or type of account from the regulations given.

Originally Posted by Nomoremex

Ok, How can our financial institutions ignore this patriot act provision which guards against anyone with an unverifiable identity (illegal aliens) opening a bank account in our country? Are there any legal beagles to investigate this?

USA PATRIOT Act, Title III, Subtitle A

Sec. 326. Verification of identification
The Secretary of the Treasury was given the task of prescribing regulations that set forth the minimum standards that financial institutions must undertake to verify the identity of customers who open accounts.[43] The rules implementing section 326 became effective on June 9, 2003, although financial institutions had until October 1, 2003 to come into compliance.[44]The minimum requirements under the section require financial institutions to establish procedures to take reasonable and practicable measures to verify the identity of those applying for an account with the institution;[45] maintain records of the information used to verify a person's identity, including name, address, and other identifying information;[46] and to consult lists of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist organizations provided to the financial institution by any government agency to determine whether a person seeking to open an account appears on any such list. [47] When prescribing the regulations, the Secretary was ordered to take into account the types of accounts available to financial institutions, the various methods someone can use to open accounts, and the various types of identifying information available to the institutions. [48]

Under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, banks and other financial institutions are restricted from carrying out activities that do not relate to financial activities.[49][50] In these cases, the regulations must be prescribed jointly by the Secretary and each Federal functional regulator[51] appropriate for such financial institution.[52] The Secretary also has the power to exempt such instutitions from the regulations proscribed under section 326.[53]

The section also required a report with 6 months of the enactment of the Patriot Act from the Secretary of Treasury in consultation with Federal functional regulators as defined in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. As such, on July 23, 2002 the Department of Treasury, FinCEN, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) jointly released a joint notice of rule-making in the Federal Register for banks,[54] and Treasury simultaneously released an identical notice in the Federal Register for credit unions, private banks and trust companies who did not have a functional regulator.[55] After a considerable response, alterations to the proposed rule making were made and Treasury and the Federal functional agencies released 31 CFR 103.121. The regulation sets out the minimum requirements for setting up a Customer Identification Program (CIP). These requirements for the CIP are that it must:

be appropriate for the financial institution's size and type of business, and if it must have an anti-money laundering compliance program then the CIP must be part of this. Credit Unions, private banks and trust companies without a Federal functional regulator must have a CIP approved by their board of directors,
have identity verification procedures. These must include risk-based procedures that allow the bank to form a reasonable belief that it knows the indentities of each customer. The regulation specifies what is required to identify a customer. If a customer does not provide sufficient information to allow their verification the CIP must include procedures the bank must undertake. The procedures must cover (1) circumstances when the bank cannot verify the customer's identity; (2) should cover circumstances when the bank should not open an account; (3) specify what terms in which a customer may use an account while the bank tries to verify the customer's identity; (4) when a bank should close an account after being unable to verify a customer's identity; and (5) when a bank should file a Suspicious Activity Report,
have procedures for making and maintaining a record of all verification information gathered by the financial institution,
have procedures for determining whehter a customer appears on any government list of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist organisations — the bank must determine this within a "reasonable time",
have procedures for giving adequate notice to customers that the bank is requesting information to verify their identities, and
have procedures that specify when another financial institution will rely on another financial institution to perform any of the procedures set out in their CIP
The regulation allows any Federal regulator, in concurrence with the Secretary of Treasury, to exempt a bank or type of account from the regulations given.

WOW, my respects..Good find. Can we call UCLA? Oh no,ups, actualy we are on the right side of the law..

I was going to post but deleted it ...because I am completely confused...but...now... why would we call UCLA?

Since when does verifying identity REQUIRE AN SSN? Again, I am a native-born American who has no SSN. The new policy merely allows those with no SSN and no credit record (which has nothing to do with wether one has a credit record, but rather with the fact that credit records can no longer be accessed without an SSN) to obtain a B of A credit card. Yes, I understand that illegal aliens may try to take advantage of the policy and even that the policy may have been specifically designed for illegal aliens, but you guys appear to be trying to turn this country into a police state. There are plenty of us who for religious or other reasons have no SSN and don't want to be forced into the scam system. In a vain effort to stop illegals (do you think that eliminating this program is going to have any real effect whatsoever?) you are ruining your own country.

Let's secure the border and try to get our elected officials and law enforcement to use the common sense God gave them to deport illegals whenever and wherever they are found, and to crack down on those who hire them. Doing that, building the border wall, and cutting off federal benefits (for which you damned well should have a valid SSN) would solve the problem without all the Orwellian Big Brother nonsense.

Crockett,
It's NOT about SSN's.
It's about proving your a legal American citizen.

Do you have a birth certificate? School records? etc

It's about banks being required to validate that a person is who they say they are and that they belong in our country.

The 911 terrorists could still ( and probably are) get drivers licenses, bank accounts and credit cards under false pretenses due to our government looking the other way when our banks give accounts and credit to illegal foreign criminals that have no true identity, even in their own country?

redbadger,

it's an anagram

UCLA = ACLU

That's an easy one?

Originally Posted by Nomoremex

redbadger,

it's an anagram

UCLA = ACLU

That's an easy one?

Thank you.

LOL... OK ...

Originally Posted by Nomoremex

Crockett,
It's NOT about SSN's.
It's about proving your a legal American citizen.

Do you have a birth certificate? School records? etc

It's about banks being required to validate that a person is who they say they are and that they belong in our country.

The 911 terrorists could still ( and probably are) get drivers licenses, bank accounts and credit cards under false pretenses due to our government looking the other way when our banks give accounts and credit to illegal foreign criminals that have no true identity, even in their own country?

I understand what you're saying, but when I read the article about the B of A program, all it said was that they were offering these cards to people with no SSN or credit history but who had a solid banking history with them. Because you have to prove your identity to open an account, proof of ID, apart from the SSN, is no issue. So IT IS about SSNs, contrary to what you claim. All that's happened is that some pundits have editorialized about how this could potentially aid illegal aliens and sensationalized that aspect of the story.

I heard yesterday that all they needed was 3 months worth of banking history