The Daily Fuckup

President Donald Trump on May 19 signed an executive order aimed at what the White House calls restoring integrity to the financial system, but the document stops short of ordering banks to check every customer’s immigration status. Instead, it directs Treasury and federal banking regulators to study changes to anti-money-laundering, customer due diligence and customer identification rules, while allowing immigration-status information to be sought only when other risk indicators or supervisory concerns make it relevant. ([whitehouse.gov](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/))

The order gives Treasury a 60-day deadline to issue a formal advisory on risks tied to non-work-authorized populations and their employers. That advisory is supposed to lay out specific red flags and typologies, including payroll tax evasion, shell-company structures, off-the-books wage payments, structuring, labor trafficking, and the use of taxpayer identification numbers in situations where lawful immigration status has not been verified. The same order says Treasury should propose stronger Bank Secrecy Act customer due-diligence rules within 90 days and consider tougher customer identification program requirements within 180 days. ([whitehouse.gov](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/))

On the lending side, the order tells the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to consider clarifying that potential deportation and wage loss can affect repayment ability for borrowers who are not work-authorized. It also tells the federal banking regulators to issue guidance within 60 days on the credit risks the administration says are posed by that population. The text does not rewrite the ability-to-repay rules on its own; it directs agencies to consider how existing standards should be applied and what guidance should follow. ([whitehouse.gov](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/))

The White House is casting the move as a fraud-prevention measure, not a universal screening mandate. The order says banks and other financial institutions should keep using risk-based compliance tools, and that they may obtain additional information, including immigration-status and work-authorization details, when that information helps resolve fraud, identity misrepresentation, sanctions evasion or similar concerns. That is a narrower instruction than a blanket requirement to collect immigration data from every account holder. ([whitehouse.gov](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/))

For now, the practical effect is limited to agency review and possible follow-on guidance. Any broader change to bank compliance or lending standards would still have to move through Treasury, the CFPB or the banking agencies before it changes what customers are asked for at the counter or in a loan file. The order sets the agenda; it does not by itself finish the rewrite. ([whitehouse.gov](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/))