Ding Dong The Bank Spy Dies, Long Live the FRL!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Senate Asks Regulators To Withdraw New Rules On Money

[ For Educational Purposes Only ]

Senate Asks Regulators To Withdraw New Rules On Money

3/5/99 -- 4:50 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate, joining a torrent of criticism from people worried about privacy, asked the Clinton administration Friday to withdraw proposed anti-money-laundering rules that would track bank customers' habits.

By an 88-0 vote, senators supported legislation directing bank regulators to drop the proposed rules. The measure lacks force of law, because Senate Democrats blocked a binding vote on its adoption.

[ What does that mean? The Dems are what? ]

``This is such a broad-reaching regulation that it infringes on our constitutional rights,'' Sen. Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said on the Senate floor. The Texas Republican maintained that the rules would violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure.

``If you ever wondered whatever happened to the people in the former Soviet Union who used to run things there and now are permanently out of work, the answer is they're all in the Clinton administration, and they're running the banking authorities of this country,'' said Gramm, a co-sponsor of the legislation.

[ Hey, somebody invite him over here. He'd fit in well with us'all, doncha tink? ]
[ Does that kind of talk prove they been addictively lurking hereabouts? Darn tootin! Pass the rad beans ;-D ]

In the House, the Banking Committee adopted an amendment to a big financial services bill Thursday that would kill the proposed banking rules, which are known as ``Know Your Customer.''

Privacy advocates, conservative groups, ordinary people and the nation's bankers have complained that the rules would transform every bank teller into a spy for Big Brother.

At least one regulator agrees. The comptroller of the currency, John D. Hawke Jr., who oversees nationally chartered banks, told a House subcommittee hearing Thursday the rules should be scrapped.

``It is my judgment ... that the proposal should be promptly withdrawn,'' Hawke said.

Hawke and Donna Tanoue, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said recently they were reconsidering the proposed rules, which have been denounced in a flood of angry e-mail messages since a public comment period began in December. The FDIC has received more than 170,000 e-mails and letters during the 90-day period, which closes Monday.

Other agencies involved in the matter are the Federal Reserve and the Office of Thrift Supervision.

The nation's bankers recently joined the chorus of people and groups urging that the proposals be scrapped, warning they could make Americans lose confidence in the banking system and government.

Proposed regulations would require banks to verify their customers' identities, know where their money comes from and determine their normal pattern of transactions. Current rules requiring banks to report ``suspicious'' transactions to law-enforcement authorities would be expanded.

The proposal is designed to combat money-laundering techniques used by drug traffickers and other criminals to hide illegal profits. An estimated $30 billion was hidden through laundering in this country last year.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dancing the fruitcake jig! Toast with juice! Hooray!

Now if we can just get some money to play with ...

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 05, 1999

Answers

croak croak. RIP pass the jiggle juice, dearies

-- laundering (nothing@but.socks), March 05, 1999.

Thanks Ashton & Leska for the info. If they ever wanted to see a real run on banks, this would be the #1 reason for most to do. I related to you earlier this week my experience in cashing a $350.00 check at a bank, and the bank saw first hand what a pissed off customer can do. I'm hearing more and more people say they either plan to take money out or have already done so. You just can't trust anyone these day, especially the government and financial institutions, they certainly don't trust me or you that's for sure!

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), March 05, 1999.

I raise my glass of jiggle juice to all. Banks have been arms of the IRS for years...why should they have even more power?

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 05, 1999.

Clink!!!!



I raise my Whiskey Fruitcake to the FRL!! Long live the FRL!!!


*hic* yah!

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 05, 1999.

Chris, would you be kind enough to pass me a glass of that fruitcake?

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 05, 1999.


The sooner real people lose faith in the federal banks, the better....But then, that is all a part of anarchy boot camp,...true anarchy, individual secession, individual and community sustainability...Dang...where's my glass????

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 05, 1999.

Clink! They blinked on the Brink



We raise our fresh carrot juice to the FRL!! Long live the FRL!!!


Now, how do we make sure the monster is dead?

Like the hydra-headed dragon, these things reappear redoubled and reinforced with hundreds of gloating spy eyes and poisoned forked tongues flickering in the wind, testing the weeple's tolerance and endurance.

How interesting that on another thread, geese were mentioned as excellent watch birds. We cannot let them migrate yet! The Leaflet Drop worked well, but we need hypervigilante surveilliance.

The other day, while at Bob's Red Mill, we watched the Canadian geese and ducks peacefully inhabit the ponds and streams. There was an accepted strange creature, sorta beaver-like, called a nutria. It was equally at home on land & water, and swam contentedly among the birds. We thought Rob might consider the nutria as a go-between with the beaver issue.

The FRL needs a dragon-slayer. Perhaps there is one underemployed in the Circus staff?

xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx x

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 05, 1999.


VICTORY IS HOURS

Attention my fellow FRLians:

It grieves me great pleasure to tell you that all of our efforts to stop the evil Know Your Fruitcake plot have born fruit! The proposal has been killed. We stand victorious and proud, our fruitcake freedoms guarded from the evil en, ene, enem, emeny!

This thread was started for the accomplishment of this very porpoise. We stand at the peeknockle of success. Congratulations to us all. Our wigilance and hard work have paid off. Now, some of you may feel that as the war has been won, we can disband the FRL. Let me rewind you that there may be other attempts in the future to attack our Fruitcake Freedoms. If history is any fudge, then these evil plotters may decide to change a few words here and there and give the proposal another nice-sounding name, and then try again to take away what we have fought so hard to vin. There is hysterical precedent for this.

So, I motion that the FRL keeps active. The FRL should not be disbanded. We must continue our wigilance. We must never be caught sleeping, or napping, or dozing, or even yawning a lot. Our Fruitcake Freedoms are too impertinent to take for granted. Long Live our Fruitcake Freedoms!

Will someone second this emotion to keep the FRL going?

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), March 05, 1999.


"Know Your Customer" will be renamed something like the "Banking Oversight and Accountability Act" and passed on a voice vote in both chambers next Christmas Eve. There will be barely any advance announcement of the legislation, yet the provisions will be twice as intrusive.

-- Nathan (nospam@all.com), March 05, 1999.

I succumb to that motion *hic*

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 06, 1999.


Head of FDIC says agency ready to drop proposed bank rules

[ For Educational Purposes Only ]

3/8/99 -- 6:25 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The head of the FDIC said Monday her agency is ready to withdraw proposed anti-money laundering rules to track bank customers' transactions, which had provoked a public outcry over privacy.

``The public has spoken very loudly and clearly,'' Donna Tanoue, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said in a telephone interview.

She said she will urge her colleagues on the agency's four-member board to agree to drop the proposed regulations, called ``Know Your Customer'' rules. The board's next meeting is on March 23.

Ms. Tanoue spoke as the 90-day public comment period for the proposal closed. On Friday, the Senate joined the torrent of criticism and sent a message to federal bank regulators to withdraw the rules.
....
In the House, the Banking Committee on Thursday adopted an amendment to a big financial services bill that would kill the proposed banking rules.

Ms. Tanoue previously had said she was reconsidering the proposed rules, which were denounced in a flood of angry e-mail starting in December.
....
In addition to Ms. Tanoue, the FDIC board includes Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke Jr., who oversees nationally chartered banks. He also believes the bank rules should be scrapped, as he told a House subcommittee hearing last Thursday.

Another board member is Ellen Seidman, director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, who has not yet taken a public position on the matter.

The thrift agency, part of the Treasury Department, wanted to wait until after the comment period was over before it decided on a position, spokesman William Fulwider said Monday. ``We will look at it with a sense of balance and sensitivity,'' he said.

The fourth director is FDIC Vice Chairman Andrew Hove, who likely will agree with Ms. Tanoue.

The Federal Reserve, which also is involved in proposing the bank rules, has not taken a public position on them. ....
----------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 08, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ