Banks are at it again.
Money laundering is big business. Mexican and Latin American drug cartels must clean billions of dollars in order to make their illicit profits usable. Middle East terrorist groups receive billions from all over the world to finance their operations. Donors require the money to be processed to the terrorist groups without notoriety.
Major banks engage in laundering drug and terrorist dollars. Knowingly. The banks have been arguing for years that they merely provide a service, they are not responsible if their customers' monies are illegally obtained or are to be used for improper/immoral purposes.
Whores. I tell you why.
Recently, major banks have started terminating their relations with certain type customers. A letter is sent to the customer advising an account is being closed effective almost immediately. The process is called de-risking. The bank says we no longer will do business with you.
JP Morgan Chase (Chase) is a perfect example. Chase recently closed the bank accounts of hundreds of porn stars. The silent message was take your dirty business elsewhere.....we are good people and do not do business with the likes of you.
Chase and other banks have not only cut off porn stars, but some in addition dating services, gun sellers. coin dealers, fireworks suppliers, Muslim students, diplomats from third world countries, and casinos.
We live in an age of political correctness. The banks want to be politically correct. Or, so they infer. They de-risk for two reasons.
First, to avoid public embarrassment. Who would want to do business with a bank that handles a checking account for a porn star. The other is to avoid what the banks describe as witch hunting by the federal government. U.S. banks are required to ".....know their customers." That means banks should not do business with bad guys. Otherwise, the government will start investigating, examining the bank's books, etc. All this is a pain to bankers. They do not fear government investigation. They dislike the added cost for attorneys, accountants, and other specialists that must be hired to assist with the investigation which the bank describes as a witch hunt. It is an additional cost of doing business and detracts from profit.
The de-risked customer needs banking services to exist in today's society. A black market in banking is developing to assist these persons. More costly, of course. Also, not subject to government regulation.
The banks' formal position re de-risking is a lot of gobbly gook. It is that the banks are aware of the government's concern that banks may be facilitating payment processing for merchant customers engaged in high risk activities which pose risk to financial institutions.
Money laundering is of major concern. The banks want the government and public to know they do not deal with shady people who might be prone to such activity. The banks are much like little Jack Horner. He sat in the corner eating his pumpkin pie, he stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum, and said.....Oh, what a good boy am I.
Jennifer Shaskey Calvery, Director of the Treasury Department's Anti-Laundering Unit, recently said that de-risking is problematic when a bank ".....cuts with a machete rather than a scapel."
The problem with this whole de-risking thing is it is a subterfuge. The banks are portraying themselves as cleaner than thou in order to cover doing business with drug dealers and terrorist supporters.
The reason for such bank conduct is simple. Money. Money is everything. The banks are dumping customers who at best only make them millions. In order to keep those making them billions.
If that isn't hypocrisy, what is?
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