Unintended Consquences

    The Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, has many provisions to help stem terrorism, but the Anti Money Laundering provisions (AML) are proving to have many consequences for our industry.   Some securities Broker/Dealers, such as Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., stopped allowing financial representantives to handle accounts for persons not residing within the 50 United States because the AML procedures required for not residents are simply too much of a burden.

    We were also notified that we can no longer accept cashiers checks for deposit into client accounts.  Apparently cashiers checks are a favorite tool of money laundering terrorists.  Now we can accept only checks from a client’s personal account. 

    We were told this war on terrorism would be a long, drawn-out affair that would eventually affect us all.  Now I’m beginning to see what they meant.