I've opened about 3 savings and 4 checking accounts within the past month and was hit with hard inqs for all of them. Yuck. I've been chalking them up to the Patriot Act. Here's some info I just found on the Patriot Act...
The sections of the Patriot Act that deal with financial transactions fall under Title III, which is also known as the International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001. It stands on its own as a separate act of Congress as well as being part of the Patriot Act, and is an amended version of the 1986 Money Laundering Control Act and the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act. The earlier acts tended to focus on preventing money laundering and international cash flow as it related to the drug trade, or to gambling, smuggling, and other types of criminal activity. In the 2001 version, the focus has shifted towards money laundering as a means of financing international terrorism.
The current act encourages financial institutions to collect certain data to identify customers and their transactions in case any of the activity should be flagged as “suspicious” by a government agency.
