There are some things that bankers, people just like you and me, are extremely opinionated about. When interacting with our friends, co-workers, or the public there are certain subjects that are controversial. Some, like politics, we even shy away from during holiday family get-togethers, for the sake of peace!
For the first time, then, politics and opinions - sometimes strong opinions - are going to affect our procedures and regulations. If laws and regulations are passed allowing illegal immigrants legal status, bank administrators and marketing people may decide to change the Customer Identification Policy (CIP) and allow them to open accounts using less than presently required identification. This is not going to sit well with many employees on the front line.
In discussing this issue in our office, we found opinions sharply divided. On the one hand, allowing these folks to open accounts will certainly expand our market, which can be very good for the bottom line. On the other hand, there was strong objection to giving legal status to people who are not eligible for it. One person, whose family contains members of strong labor unions, really objects.
Other than the terrorists who opened accounts in our financial institutions, the media has been reporting incidents involving foreign nationals. For instance, in the Boston area, a couple was arrested who entered our country through Miami. According to police, within two weeks of their arrival in the United States they had flown to Boston, and, working 20 hours a day, managed to attach devices to ATMs in Boston, Newton, Lowell, Braintree, Weston and Milton with a sign telling the customer the regular ATM was down and to use the alternate device. When customers swiped their ATM or credit cards through the device, it recorded their personal information, which the couple then downloaded to their computer. When they were arrested they had a skimming device, a computer, floppy disks, and three passports each, bearing different names. The rental car was paid for with a stolen credit card number.
The way the subject has been introduced by the government would lead us to believe all foreign nationals, legal or illegal, are decent, hard working people who deserve to be able to open accounts. People on our front line are aware that the majority are - but we've been told to be observant, suspicious, and report what appears to be a threat to the United States or behavior out of the ordinary.
This is not going to be an easy issue to resolve. Depending on the actions and decisions of the United States Congress in the coming days, your financial institution will have to make some hard decisions. We can only hope the whole bank is involved with making them, and has an easy time living with those decisions.
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