Treasury Expands Rules for Banks on Data Sharing Related to Immigration Status
· Telemundo McAllen (KTLM)
The U.S. Department of the Treasury took steps on Friday to engage the country's banks more deeply in President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration, including issuing new guidelines that allow banks to quickly share information about suspicious customers and a notice directing them to flag indications that one of their clients may lack legal immigration status. These changes are part of the government's push to remove undocumented workers from the banking system without explicitly ordering banks to do so. To encourage bank participation, the government has framed these actions as a crackdown on fraud and crime, rather than explicitly on immigration. 'The information at your disposal can help stop a cartel financier, dismantle a money laundering network, uncover labor exploitation, or protect taxpayers from fraud,' asserted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in prepared remarks for a banking conference in Houston. Bessent's statements and the new Treasury guidelines stem from an executive order signed by Trump in May that requires banks to closely examine the citizenship of their clients, in addition to instructing banking regulators and government departments to look for signs that individuals without legal status are opening accounts or obtaining loans or credit cards. However, that executive order did not include an explicit mandate for banks to collect citizenship information, something the sector has lobbied against for months. Banks have been able to share information about their customers with other banks under the Patriot Act program when they suspect money laundering or fraud, as part of post-September 11, 2001 efforts to combat terrorism and other crimes.
AI summary · Source: Telemundo McAllen (KTLM) →
