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FW: ACTION ITEM: Know Your Customer
-----Original Message-----
From: announce@lp.org [mailto:announce@lp.org]
Sent: Wednesday, 03 February, 1999 07:48
To: ees002s@republicbankfl.com
Subject: ACTION ITEM: Know Your Customer
===============================================
URGENT ACTION ITEM!
FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
===============================================
Watergate Office Building
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-mail: ggetz@CompuServe.com
For information about the party: (800) ELECT-US
===============================================
February 2, 1999
===============================================
With deadline rapidly approaching, LP urges
members to help repeal "Know Your Customer" rule
* Immediate action required! Contact the FDIC
BAD NEWS: There is slightly over one month left until the public
comment period expires on the FDIC's proposed "Know Your Customer"
regulation, which would require banks to spy on their customers for the
federal government.
GOOD NEWS: The Libertarian Party's all-out effort to kill this
outrageous proposal by flooding the FDIC with letters, faxes, and
e-mails is rapidly picking up steam -- and we need your help to finish
the job.
What is the Know Your Customer proposal, and how can you help
abolish it?
Know Your Customer is a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC) proposal that would require banks and other financial
institutions to develop customer profiles, monitor their customers'
accounts, and report any "unusual transactions" to federal law
enforcement agencies like the DEA or the IRS.
The government claims it is trying to thwart money launderers and
drug dealers. But what this law would really do is turn every bank
teller into a government informer and every American with a bank
account into a criminal suspect -- and that's why Libertarians are
fighting this law.
More specifically, the Know Your Customer proposal, as published
in the December 7, 1998, Federal Register, requires that banks:
* Determine their customer's sources of funds.
* Determine their customer's "normal and expected" transactions.
* Monitor customer transactions and identify transactions that are
inconsistent with normal and expected transactions.
* Report any "suspicious activity" to federal investigators.
This policy is scheduled to go into effect on April 1, 2000,
unless we can put enough pressure on the FDIC to kill it. The FDIC is
taking public comments on this issue until March 8 -- which gives us
just over one month to make it clear that the American public will not
accept this outrageous regulation.
In order to achieve that, the Libertarian Party has joined a
coalition to repeal the proposal along with the ACLU, the Free Congress
Foundation, the California Bankers Association, and other privacy
groups.
Already, our efforts are paying off:
* On January 8, the national Libertarian Party issued a press
release denouncing the scheme as "the ultimate invasion of your
financial privacy," and response from the media has been overwhelming:
LP spokespeople have been scheduled for 25 broadcast interviews heard
on a total of 356 stations, and interview requests continue to roll in.
* Even Congress is paying attention: On January 11, while an LP
spokesman was being interviewed on radio station WJBO in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, Congressman Richard Baker become so alarmed by the angry
calls that he called in and tried to do a little damage control! Baker,
a senior Republican on the House Banking Committee, pledged to hold
hearings on repealing the Know Your Customer program.
* Best of all, the FDIC has already been flooded with over 11,000
letters, faxes, and e-mails protesting the plan!
Public opposition to the plan is growing so quickly that the FDIC
is starting to retreat on its position. It has now announced that the
plan could be "substantially revised."
That's where you come in. Libertarians don't want this "Spy on
Your Customer" program watered down, revised, or reformed; we want it
repealed!
With your help, we can immediately DOUBLE the number of public
comments the FDIC has received. How? By hitting the FDIC with an
avalanche of 11,000 more letters, faxes, and e-mails -- which might be
enough to bury this proposal once and for all.
That's right: If each of the 11,000-plus subscribers to the
Libertarian Party's e-mail list fired off a comment to the FDIC right
now, we could immediately double the number of public comments
received, putting tremendous pressure on the agency to rescind this
plan.
And if everyone forwarded this e-mail to just one friend who is
concerned about financial privacy, we could triple the number of
comments, and so on.
HOW TO CONTACT THE FDIC:
* E-mail: comments@FDIC.gov
* Write: Robert E. Feldman, Executive Secretary, Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation, 550 17th Street, NW,
Washington DC 20429
* Fax: (202) 898-3838
WHAT TO SAY:
First, state in simple and unambiguous language that you are
opposed to the Know Your Customer regulation, and want it repealed.
Then, make some or all of the following points:
* In a free society, the government has no business even asking
where you get your money or how you spend it -- and politicians
certainly have no right to force your bank to monitor your account.
This is the kind of thing you might have expected of the government of
East Germany, China, or North Korea, but not in the U.S.A.
* The Know Your Customer regulation amounts to 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. It is unconstitutional -- plain and
simple.
* The Know Your Customer regulation could subject your money to
asset forfeiture. Asset forfeiture laws allow police to seize your car,
your cash, and even your home without having to charge you with a
crime -- and force you to go to court to get it back. 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.
* Like asset forfeiture laws and fingerprints on drivers
licenses, the Know Your Customer regulation is another
Prove-You're-Not-A-Criminal law. In America, we're supposed to be
innocent until proven guilty -- not the other way around.
* Most important, the Know Your Customer regulation cannot be
reformed; it should be repealed!
TIPS: Here are a few suggestions to make your efforts as
effective as possible:
* Include your name and address; anonymous messages may be
ignored.
* Be polite. Threats, abuse, and offensive language will cause
your message to be disregarded.
* Put the above points in your own words. The FDIC is receiving
hundreds of form letters, faxes, and e-mails every day, so make
yours look personal.
* Be brief. Keep faxes and letters to one page, and e-mails to a
few hundred words.
* Hurry! With the deadline just slightly over one month away, we
need to pressure the FDIC bureaucrats now. Let's see if
Libertarians working together can cause an "e-mail avalanche" --
and a flood of letters and faxes -- at the FDIC!
Is there anything else you can do? Yes: Pass this Action Item on
to a friend or relative and ask them to contact the FDIC, too.
*** END PGP VERIFIED MESSAGE ***
The Libertarian Party
http://www.lp.org/
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice:
202-333-0008
Washington DC 20037 fax:
202-333-0072
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