[JoshW]

Makes sense.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - BkofAma Corp. has begun offering ************ to customers without Social Security numbers, typically illegal immigrants, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

In recent years, banks across the country have been offering checking accounts and even mortgages to the nation's fast-growing ranks of undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic, the paper said, adding these immigrants generally have not been able to get major ************.

The new BkofAma card is open to people who lack both a Social Security number and a credit history, as long as they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, the Journal said.

BkofAma tested the program last year at five branches in Los Angeles, and last week expanded it to 51 branches in Los Angeles County, home to the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the U.S., the Journal said.

The bank hopes to roll out the program nationally later this year, the paper said.

A BkofAma spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...src=rss&rpc=22

[Korchnoi]

I give it 6 months before the government subpoenas the client list.

[Tchocky]

How do these illegal immigrants get a checking account without a social security card? Interest rates should be pretty high.

[louis]

You do not need an SSN number to get a bank account in the U.S. In fact it is pretty easy to get a U.S. bank account, unless you are Canadian.

Go onto ebay, and there are a whole bunch of agents offering to open up U.S. accounts with just a passport.

Not sure why Canadians can't do it, probably some agreement the U.S. has with their government.

[betplom]

Not sure why Canadians can't do it, probably some agreement the U.S. has with their government.

Probably because the 9/11 terrorists arrived in the US illegally from Canada and the Canada/USA border is so porous and unsecure that the US cannot trust ANYTHING Canadian.

Remember that Canada is a major headache for the US, you know with all its freedoms and human rights policies.

Blame Canada!

[pags11]

sadly ironic lakefan...