American Bankers Association

A Bill to Ban All Foreign Identification Cards to be Introduced

Money Laundering and Terrorism Issues

Update, December 5, 2003

ABA has learned that a bill to ban financial institutions from accepting ALL forms of foreign identification documents will be introduced by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), a member of the House Financial Services Committee. Despite the overwhelming response from the industry during the summer that financial institutions be permitted to perform their own risk assessment on whether to accept foreign identification documents in the opening of new accounts, the bill (the "Financial Customer Identification Verification Improvement Act") will be introduced before the end of this year.

In addition to an outright ban on identification documents issued by foreign governments, the bill also prohibits the use of the matricula consular card, "issued in the United States by a duly authorized consular officer of the Government of Mexico."

[Source: CIS News E-Mail]

---

|  | |

---