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Question…

Asked by Anonymous

My high school has a bank in it, and up until this year the people working at the bank were more than willing to make change for students who needed to, for example, break a twenty. Last month, though, the rules suddenly changed, and we can't make change at the bank anymore. When asked, the lady behind the counter said that "making change for people who aren't members of the bank is a violation of the Patriot Act". Is that true? I thought the Patriot Act was something entirely different.

The USA Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56) does have some rules that impact banks and deal with money laundering. However, none of them have to do with making change for people who aren’t bank members. You can learn more about these rules from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

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