Feb 13, 2007
Bank of America, the country's second-largest bank, "has quietly begun offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers -- typically illegal immigrants," according to the Wall Street Journal.
Customers can qualify for a credit card if they have had a checking account at the bank for at least three months. They are required to leave a deposit and pay a relatively high interest rate, according to the paper.
The program is controversial. Bank of America says it will help undocumented workers build good credit. But critics say one of the USA's largest financial institutions should not be helping people who violate the country's immigration laws.
"They are clearly crossing the line; they are actually aiding and abetting people who broke the law," says the spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Make no mistake about it: millions of dollars are at stake.
"If we don't disproportionately grow in the Hispanic [market]...we aren't going to grow" as a bank, a company official told the Journal.
USA TODAY reported last year about the buying power of immigrant customers, including undocumented workers. Bank of America says nearly half of the nation's Hispanic households have one of its credit cards.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/02/bank_of_america.html