Sponsors (3)
The bill standardizes attestation and reporting to help banks and authorities detect fraud and enforce immigration rules, but it heightens risks of excluding immigrants from banking, raises privacy and compliance burdens, and imposes severe penalties on individuals.
Banks and federal agencies will have clearer, standardized attestation and reporting rules, improving detection of false attestations, fraud, and illicit finance and aiding immigration/enforcement investigations.
Financial institutions get a uniform, model attestation to rely on when verifying customers, reducing legal and compliance uncertainty for banks and examiners.
Banks will be required to verify lawful presence before opening accounts, which can reduce illegal or fraudulently used accounts and related illicit finance risks.
Immigrants and noncitizens may be denied bank accounts if they cannot or refuse to attest to lawful presence, increasing the unbanked and excluding people from basic financial services.
Banks and credit unions will face new compliance, reporting, recordkeeping costs and potential liability, which can lead to higher fees or reduced access to services for customers nationwide.
Collecting and reporting customers' immigration-status information raises privacy and civil‑liberties risks, including potential misuse of data and chilling effects on account use.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires people present in the U.S. to attest to immigration status to open or keep bank accounts, imposes penalties and forfeiture for false attestations, and mandates reporting and federal rulemaking.
Introduced March 5, 2026 by Andy Ogles · Last progress March 5, 2026
Requires anyone present in the United States who seeks to open or maintain a bank account to attest to their immigration status under penalty of perjury. Banks must refuse accounts from people who do not attest, report suspected false attestations to federal authorities, and face civil and criminal penalties (including forfeiture) for violations; regulators must issue implementation rules within months and the rules take effect one year after enactment.