From: jgrubs@left.webcasters.com (Jim Grubs (W8GRT))
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 95 08:17:48 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Lack of secrecy in U.S. Banks
Message-ID: <wkoDDD1w165w@left.webcasters.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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ph@netcom.com (Peter Hendrickson) writes:

> 
> I ran across an interesting fragment of the U.S. Code.
> 
> Apparently, the Federal Government may access any banking records

As a former bank employee, I can assure all readers that privacy of banking
records is non-existant. All you need is a friend who works in the computer,
auditing, bookkeeping, or loan department (in that order of preference). If
your friend has worked there long enough, he/she can probably also get
informmation from any other bank in the community. (Don't suggest the
security department. As far as bank transactions are involved, the Auditor
normally handles that.)

To reassure the excessively paranoid, bank employees are normally flooded
with so much information per day that they normally take no interest in any
more of it than their job forces them to. Moreover, when you consider that it
is commonplace for a teller to handle total transactions daily than run well
into six figures, few if any individual transaction attract any attention.

Banking trivia #1: Banks are the only businesses that close their books daily
rather than monthly or quarterly.

Banking trivia #2: When choosing a bank, check out the Cash Over/Cash Under
account on their balance sheets.


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