Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the Trump administration is moving quickly to crack down on criminal enterprises, cartels and undocumented immigrants using the U.S. financial system for their payroll schemes, illicit financing and other fraud.
In remarks to Arizona bankers Thursday, Bessent said, “This administration will not tolerate blatant abuse of our financial system, nor will it permit risks posed by the extension of financial services to illegal aliens.”
He told the bankers the administration is relying on their help to make good on its efforts to root out fraud and financial schemes carried out by those in the U.S. illegally.
“We do not ask bankers to assume the burdens of border enforcement,” Bessent said. “But we depend on banks to do what you do best: know your customers, identify risks as they arise, and report suspicious patterns before they metastasize into criminal schemes.”
The renewed effort stems from an executive order President Trump signed in May directing Treasury and federal banking regulators to tighten oversight of financial activity linked to unauthorized employment.
The president signed the order, titled “Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System,” on May 19 and directed the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC, National Credit Union Administration and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to strengthen customer identification and due-diligence rules and to reassess how banks weigh credit risk for borrowers without work authorization.
The order also set a timetable to implement the order, with advisories and guidance due within 60 days, a proposed customer due-diligence rule within 90 days and a customer identification proposal within 180 days, by November.
Bessent said the Treasury Department has met the order’s first deadlines. In June, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued guidance to help banks spot patterns tied to unlawful employment, labor brokers, shell companies, payroll tax evasion and identity theft.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency followed with an advisory on lending to borrowers not authorized to work in the U.S., instructing banks to weigh a borrower’s “willingness and capacity to repay” as part of standard underwriting.
Bessent said Arizona’s compliance programs, employee training, suspicious-activity reporting and information-sharing reflect the kind of partnership the executive order envisions.
In return, Bessent said, the Treasury Department is committed to giving banks better tools to catch fraud early, and he promised officials in Washington would listen more closely to community bankers.
Legal and tax analysts caution that the order’s effectiveness will depend on how the regulations are written. In a June 3 client alert, law firm Debevoise & Plimpton noted the order doesn’t impose new compliance obligations on banks, though it does start agency actions that could reshape anti-money-laundering compliance, customer due diligence and lending standards.
The CFPB is also weighing whether borrowers’ risk of deportation and lost wages should be factors in determinations of their ability to repay loans. The firm noted the order stopped short of an earlier, more sweeping proposal that would have required banks to verify citizenship status for all customers.
An analysis in June from KPMG’s Washington National Tax practice similarly described the order as “a policy signal rather than an immediate change to any law, rule, or regulation.”
But the firm warned that if the review leads to stricter know-your-customer requirements, multinational employers and global mobility programs could see a slowdown in account openings and an increase in documentation demands for employees who rely on Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers rather than Social Security numbers. This is a group that may include workers who are lawfully in the U.S., as well as those without authorization.
Federal regulators had until July 20 to issue credit-risk guidance and the CFPB’s ability-to-repay clarification, while the Treasury Department faces an Aug. 17 deadline to propose changes to customer due-diligence rules. A broader customer identification proposal is due by Nov. 16.
