In order to get a bank account in the U.S., customers need to provide their name, date of birth, address and an identification number, which may or may not indicate a person’s citizenship, federal regulators say.
But recent reports show that banks are also explicitly asking for an individual’s country of citizenship.
The Miami Herald in an article Thursday recounted how a PhD student from Iran who was studying at the University of Miami had his Bank of America account frozen after documentation he had provided as proof of legal residency was not accepted.
In another incident, the Kansas City Star reported last month that a Wichita-born man’s account with the Charlotte, N.C., banking giant was frozen after he ignored a form asking if he was a U.S. citizen or held dual citizenship.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
