The Treasury Department just handed America’s local banks a new playbook for hunting cartel money and immigration fraud. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Friday that banks will gain sweeping new authority to share customer surveillance video and cyber data with federal investigators targeting cartel financiers and fraud rings.
What the new measures actually do
A May 19 executive order directs the Treasury to strengthen Bank Secrecy Act customer due diligence rules. The order specifically mandates that immigration status be incorporated into know-your-customer checks, a significant expansion of what banks are expected to track about their clients.
The Treasury is also issuing new advisories focused on red flags tied to work authorization status. In English: banks are being told exactly what suspicious patterns to look for when someone without proper work authorization is moving money through the system.
Geographic Targeting Orders now require banks in certain Minnesota counties to report international transfers of $3,000 or more. That’s a notably low threshold, designed to catch structuring, the practice of breaking large transfers into smaller ones to avoid detection.
