President Donald Trump intends to ban illegal migrants in the United States from opening accounts in the country’s banks. In fact, for months the White House has been studying an executive order or law that would allow credit institutions to verify the status of their customers. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also recently spoke about it, but the measure could cost federal coffers dearly.
Bessent’s interview
“Banks had better prepare themselves for the task of collecting data on customers’ citizenship. Illegal immigrants have no right to access the banking system,” Bessent said in an interview with Cnbc. In a previous conversation with the newspaper Traffic lightsthe Treasury secretary revealed that the measure is “under development.” “Why can unknown foreign citizens come and open a bank account? The job of bank managers is to know the customers. How do you know it if you don’t know whether it has a legal or illegal status?”, he added to the Cnbc.
What US banks know
In the United States, the information collected by banks on their customers is that required by the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and by the “know your customer” regulations. The legislation obliges credit institutions to verify the identity of account holders. A useful precaution to prevent the concealment of illicit funds or terrorist financing. But banks do not have to request any certificate demonstrating the legal status of their customers. Which the Trump administration now wants to introduce.
The consequences
One legal shortcut that Washington could use leads to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network agency. This US Treasury body has the task of enforcing what is regulated by the Bank Secrecy Act, but the legislation guarantees the agency a certain discretion. The Trump administration could therefore slip through the legislative loophole and insert a rule that prohibits illegal migrants from opening an account in the United States.
Beyond the legal margins, the application of such a provision worries credit institutions quite a bit. According to a study by the centre-right think tank American Action Forum, checking account holders would cost banks a sum of between 2.6 and 5.6 billion dollars. Not to mention that in this way the easiest and most direct tool for making these people pay taxes would be lost.