HJL,
I can confirm Chase has changed their policies. I tried to help a friend by depositing 50 bucks cash in her account, and they said I needed to be a signer on the account. When I asked why, they said it was because of counterfeit bills being deposited into someone else’s account. I thought it was weird that a bank would be concerned with people bringing counterfeit money into a branch. I ended up having to drive the money down to my friend. As I’m writing this, I wonder can you do blind deposits via the drop box anymore? – D.A.
o o o
HJL
I think the invasive questioning depends on the proximity of the employee to government regulators and how high the Texas ratio went. The local bank with the highest Texas ratio (higher equals a higher degree of insolvency) but did not get taken down is very invasive when you want a loan or want to open an account. They have had the FDIC up to their navels and were only saved by Democrat owners. Consequently you have strict adherence to anything that resembles a formal rule and many examiner whims. Bank examiners like pushing bankers around. I’be been one. I’ve seen it. Traveling with socialists is no way to live.
I do not have the same experience opening accounts at a regional bank, which took TARP money. The rank and file are just going through the motions. The place the regional bank balks is in the loan department. They stress your financials like everything is going to go all at once, no matter how diversified you are. The evaluation is done in a central technical evaluation department, which put those people in close proximity to FDIC examiners. Those loan analysts are an uptight bunch. For the record, I used the experience to tighten my own financial picture.
The national banks have systems and have to make numbers. If you fit the gateway parameters, you are in and they cram you through the system. Once size fits all.
A nuance on the war on cash is if the bankers get cash deposits then they HAVE to loan it back out to make all the other performance measures work out. Worthy recipients of these loans are hard to come by. There is hot money out there chasing return. When a swell of hot money comes in, they have to act. When it leaves, it causes pain. It seems they are shunning the “hot money” at some of these banks.
The big picture is they are trying to stop up all the cracks so that you cannot avoid paying taxes by using cash. They are preparing to really tax you. Also, if you will not stand to be taxed, they will trump up charges on banks, movie theaters, a car company, or some other industry and fine them billions. That makes the garden variety anti-capitalist happy, but that corporation just adds it to your bill. The people are always the ones who pay. – RV