Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 5
FinCEN Flags 12 Red Signs of Unauthorized Worker Payroll Schemes at Banks
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 5

FinCEN Flags 12 Red Signs of Unauthorized Worker Payroll Schemes at Banks

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 5

Summary

  • FinCEN on Friday told banks to watch for more than a dozen red flags linked to payroll schemes involving unauthorized workers, including signs of identity theft, payroll tax fraud and money laundering.
  • The advisory is the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown and follows a May executive order directing regulators and agencies to scrutinize whether people without legal status are opening accounts or getting loans or credit cards.
  • Banks had feared a broader mandate to collect customers’ citizenship information, but the White House stopped short of requiring that step after industry lobbying over cost and paperwork.
  • Treasury said the guidance is meant to disrupt access to the U.S. financial system without triggering blanket debanking, even though banks historically have not collected citizenship or immigration-status data.

Insights

Will deputizing banks for immigration enforcement inadvertently create a larger, untraceable shadow economy?
How will new bank 'red flags' affect financial access for millions in mixed-status families?