Source: kansascity.com
Josh Collins was born in Wichita, KS and he and his wife, Jessica have been banking at Bank of America since 2000. Jessica's great grandparents settled in Kansas. Recently they received a form letter from the bank requesting some questions. One of the questions regarded if they were citizen or could claim a dual citizenship with another country. They thought the letter was a scam, they didn't respond and discarded the letter.
Last week they discovered that they could no longer access their account. When they contacted the bank, they were told that it was standard practice for the bank to verify citizenship whether it is a new account or an existing account. The bank's representative stated "Like all financial institutions, we’re required by law to maintain complete and accurate records for all of our customers and may periodically request information, such as country of citizenship and proof of U.S. residency. This type of outreach is nothing new. This information must be up to date and therefore we periodically reach out to customers, which is what we did in this case".
The bank's statement is somewhat contradictory to the California Bankers Association which said that questions of citizenship are not federally required, to their knowledge. They added that federal law requires banks must verify only four things regarding accounts: name, date of birth, residential address and social security number.
Other federally chartered banks like Wells Fargo do ask questions regarding citizenship. It is rumored that the US Department of the Treasury are urging financial institutions to collect as much information as possible on their customers.
Bank of America is generating much ire over their practices of late. Just a few days ago, a customer's safety deposit box was missing. The bank told the customer that they have no idea what happened to the box. It might be safe to keep one's money and valuables under the mattress.