'Alarms': Trump's bank order plan sends financial institutions into panic mode
President Donald Trump has alarmed banks after floating his latest executive order idea, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration is considering issuing an executive order requiring banks to collect citizenship information from customers. It is part of the administration's broader push to crack down on illegal immigration and would require banks to verify customers' passports and other legal documents to maintain their accounts.
"Discussions about the potential executive order have alarmed banks, which have lobbied Treasury and questioned the legal basis for the proposal, some of the people said," the report reads.
The Trump administration said no executive order has been finalized yet.
"One avenue the administration is considering is having the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which enforces the U.S.’s anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism financing laws, collect the information, the people said," the report continued. "Those laws are the basis for customer-verification requirements and require banks to flag large cash transactions or other transactions that appear suspicious to FinCEN."
"The Trump administration has already taken steps to use those laws to target a welfare-fraud scandal in Minnesota involving dozens of Minnesotans of Somali descent that gained national attention," it added. "The fraud scandal led Trump to send enhanced Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers into Minnesota, sparking weeks of unrest after two citizens were shot by officers."