Many Pounds and (no) Sense.
AML regulations require "identification and verification" the latter being performed in almost all cases with reference to government issued documentation (or electronically to databases of government issued "numbers" - passport/identity/registration #'s).
Government outsourced policing of anti-money laundering and terrorist identification to financial institutions (FIs), passing the financial burden from themselves to banks, and FIs in turn have been able to pass the expense on to shareholders and customers. Not to mention that it is far easier to extract significant fines from financial institutions for "inadequate" AML/Sanctions programs than obtaining similar amounts from asset forfeiture and successful prosecution of AML/Terror offenses.
Simply evoking the word "terrorist" is enough to justify egregious privacy and human rights violations, with recourse taking years of litigation, if at all.
There are enough examples in the modern world where "previously designated" terrorists are now the "legitimate democratic" government (e.g. ANC - South Africa), to give pause to blindly following a current regime's list of "baddies".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
