Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org> posted on Jan. 8 a Libertarian Party press release: Subject: Banks may be spying soon too
I posted the release on another bulletin board and received the following response. K.Mickey
(Posted by "sharn") Before everyone panics over a Libertarian Party memo, please note that the proposed (and that is all they are at this point)have resulted in the largest negative public response to date for any proposal by any national banking regulator. As a result of such negative response (the greatest source being fiancial institutions who do not wish to be cast as a ad hoc law enforcement agency), it is unlikely that any proposal of this nature will find its way into a regulation. Of course, your response to the FDIC director is always helpful and I in no way discourage such continued objections to the proposal.
I think it's interesting that when Clinton signed an executive order requiring banks to report ANY banking transactions involving persons named on a 5 page small print list distributed to banks some three years ago, that no one raised bloody hell...of course the names were all hispanic surnames and many quite common. This was in a misguided belief that such reporting would make in roads in breaking the South American drug traffic. The realized result was that it was that the reporting would be so burdensome to the normal business activity of financial institutions, that the executive directive was ignored with no adverse consequence to the financial institutions.
from Marta's original post:
>New regulation would require banks
> to spy on their customers for Uncle Sam
>
> WASHINGTON, DC -- A new government directive will force banks
> to spy on their customers and report any "unusual transactions" to
> federal investigators -- and there's less than two months left for
> Americans to try to stop it from taking effect, the Libertarian Party
> warned today.
>
> "Under the so-called Know Your Customer rule, bank tellers can
> quiz you about where you got your money and how you plan to spend it.
> And if your answers sound suspicious, they can report you to federal
> law enforcement agencies," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national
> director.
>
> "This new regulation will turn your local bank into a branch of
> the federal government's civilian surveillance apparatus. It's the
> ultimate invasion of your financial privacy," he said.
>
> The Know Your Customer law has been proposed by the Federal
> Deposit Insurance Corporation and is scheduled to go into effect on
> April 1.
>
> It will require banks and other financial institutions to
> develop customer profiles, monitor bank transactions, and report to the
> government any "unusual activity" -- such as large cash deposits or
> withdrawals.
>
> Since "unusual activity" could include depositing a Christmas
> bonus or inheritance, or withdrawing money to buy a house or car,
> ordinary Americans could find themselves trying to prove to agents from
> the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, or the Drug Enforcement Agency
> that they are not drug dealers or money launderers, said Dasbach.
>
> "This law would turn every bank teller into a government
> informer and everyone with a bank account into a criminal suspect," he
> said.
>
> The Libertarian Party opposes the Know Your Customer regulation
> for numerous reasons, said Dasbach.
>
> * Your banking habits are none of the government's business.
>
> "In a free society, the government has no business even asking
> where innocent Americans get their money or how they spend it, much
> less coercing businesses into secretly monitoring your bank account,"
> he said.
>
> * It's an illegal, warrantless search that violates the Fourth
> Amendment.
>
> "Monitoring every bank account to check for laundered money is
> no different from pulling over every driver just in case some are
> intoxicated, or searching every home to check for stolen goods," said
> Dasbach. "It is unconstitutional -- plain and simple."
>
> * It could subject your money to asset forfeiture.
>
> "If you can't immediately prove you're not a criminal, the
> government could seize your money under asset forfeiture laws," noted
> Dasbach. "Instead of being the safest place to store your money, banks
> could become the most dangerous place -- since Uncle Sam's bank robbers
> can seize it at will."
>
> The Libertarian Party has joined other civil-liberty
> organizations and business groups like the ACLU, the California Bankers
> Association, and the Free Congress Foundation to prevent this law from
> taking effect, said Dasbach.
>
> The FDIC has set March 8 as the deadline for public comment
> about the proposed regulation -- and Americans need to let the
> government know what they think about this
> "Prove-You're-Not-A-Criminal" law, he said.
>
> "We need to flood the FDIC with letters, faxes, and e-mails
> demanding an end to Big Brother Banking," said Dasbach. "Americans need
> to launch a Know Your Constitution program -- to remind these federal
> bureaucrats that they have no right violating our privacy and dignity
> this way."
>
> To comment on the Know Your Customer regulation, write: Robert
> E. Feldman, Executive Secretary, Attn: Comments/OES, Federal Deposit
> Insurance Corporation, 550 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20429. Or
> fax: (202) 898-3838. Or e-mail: comments at FDIC.gov.
>