WASHINGTON — Right now, members of U.S. Congress are debating the best ways they can act to further protect Americans’ private financial information.
A new bill filed in the U.S. Senate would cut back on how much data banks are required to report to the government, but critics warn the regulations are needed to stop criminals.
Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Samantha Manning has the details on the new legislation and the larger situation of financial privacy in the United States.
Every day, Americans around the country are making millions of financial transactions, from credit card and debit card swipes to wire transfers and stock market deals.
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All of those moves are monitored by banks, and if they’re deemed suspicious, reported to the government.
However, those reports aren’t without their opponents.
“Something that we’ve lost as American consumers is financial privacy,” Yael Ossowski, Consumer Choice Center, told Channel 2 Action News. “Essentially, we have financial surveillance.”
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Ossoswski said his organization supports a new bill filed by U.S. Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) called the “Saving Privacy Act.”
The bill would repeal the reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to report suspicious financial transactions while still upholding recordkeeping requirements.
Just this past month, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a major case about Bank Secrecy Act Violations, and T.D. Bank entered guilty pleas for multiple felonies connected to a money laundering scheme.
“T.D. Bank became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures,” Garland said when announcing the details of the case.
But critics say the current laws on the books go too far and violate people’s privacy.
Supporters of the Saving Privacy Act argue it strengthens protections provided by the Fourth Amendment, which prevents unreasonable searches and seizures.
“They’re really trying to make sure the government has warrants and more proof if they try to go after your financial data,” Ossowski said.
The Saving Privacy Act also requires an approval from Congress for any new databases that collect personally identifiable information from Americans.
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