Your bank teller might have quite a few more questions for you starting Oct. 1, when a section of the U.S. Patriot Act takes effect in an effort to protect the nation's banking system from being used to funnel money for terrorism.

"These new rules are compliments of Osama bin Laden," said First National Bank training manager Keith Kirk, who has been explaining the new rules to the bank's employees this week.

Banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, securities brokers, mutual funds and futures merchants must comply with the act by Oct. 1. Section 326 of the Patriot Act, drafted in the weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, requires financial institutions to verify the identity of anyone opening an account, maintain records of the information used to verify the person's identity and determine whether the person appears on any lists of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist organizations.

It requires financial institutions to collect at least four pieces of information from prospective customers: name, street address, date of birth and a taxpayer identification number, such as a Social Security number. Institutions have been collecting all or most of this information for years, but now it's required.

Next, the institution must verify that new customers are who they say they are through "documentary evidence," such as a passport or driver's license.

If bank customers already have accounts, then the extra information isn't required to be collected. But if that customer changes the account, say by adding a spouse to the account, more information will have to be provided at that time.

"It will be a jolt to some customers, especially some of our elderly customers" Kirk said. "But if a customer of 40 years comes in and opens a new line of credit, we'll have to say, 'Joe, we need a copy of your driver's license and social security card.'"

If there's a gray area, he told employees Tuesday, "just get the information, just get it. There's no reason not to."

Actually, the reason not to is severe. Failure to comply could subject firms to a $1 million fine per non-reported incident and subject the executives responsible to prison sentences.

Many of the terrorists of Sept. 11, 2001, had money wired to false accounts that used phony, out-of-date driver's licenses, Kirk told the employees.

"I'm not saying this would have stopped it," Kirk said. "But it might have tripped them up a bit."

Kirk said the CHEX system, which also monitors for bad checks, will also send information to the Office of Foreign Asset Control to check for terrorist links.

First Missouri State Bank president Steve Taylor said he didn't see it as a big change in the way his bank does business.

"In a smaller community like this, people aren't as anonymous to us like in a big city," he said. "We always get identification. But it makes sense. We need to be more careful than we have before."

Pat Holley, senior vice president of Capaha Bank, said it's a necessity to make sure terrorists aren't allowed to open accounts and move freely about the country.

"Nobody really questioned the ones who did that," she said. "This is not to make life difficult on our current customers, it's an opportunity to try and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Holley said the regulations are like other new financial regulations -- there's tons of information, but few specifics.

"The government's put out a lot of information," she said. "But a lot of it is unclear. We can implement the program and then make minor adjustments as we need to."

Holley said for the large majority of customers, there will be little difference.

"We're already doing some of this," she said. "We're probably not recording information to the extent the new regulations require us to. But it probably won't be a big hassle. Bigger banks may have more of a problem with it."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137