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Podcast: Cato Event Podcast
Episode: Bank Secrecy Act Reform: Restoring the Fourth Amendment
Description: Personal and financial privacy are key components of life in free societies, where individuals enjoy—or at least should enjoy—a private sphere free of government involvement, surveillance, and control. However, laws that were written before the digital era now result in financial institutions collecting untold amounts of consumer data to which the government has easy—and often unfettered—access, intruding on Americans’ financial privacy and endangering their Fourth Amendment rights.The root of this problem is the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (BSA) and its later amendments, including those in the Patriot Act of 2001. The BSA now forms the ba...