The Patriot Act and Corporations

Wesbanco Inc., one of the largest banks in our area, is just one of the numerous corporations affected by the United States' Patriot Act. Since the act has been put into effect, Wesbanco has actually had to create new departments just to ensure that they abide by the laws of the act. New departments equals more employees, which also equals more and more money put towards the company, technology, and the salaries of the employees. According to an interview I conducted with Cathi McClelland, Assistant Vice President of the Mortgage Lending Department at Wesbanco Inc., some of the steps the company must complete before approving anyone to open anything as small as a one hundred dollar checking account include background checks, OFAC (which determines if the individual is listed under the directory of terrorists), and photo I.D. Also, if anyone places more than $3,000 in the bank or takes more than $3,000 out, all of these checks must be run. In the case of the Amish, if they were not approved before the Patriot Act was enforced or refuse to get a social security number for religious reasons, they simply cannot be approved.

Do you think it necessary to complete all of the above measures just to open a checking account? Do you believe it right that Amish must either betray their religious beliefs or simply not use the services of the bank?