GAO Probes How Banks Check Out Rich Clients

The General Accounting Office is investigating how well financial institutions scrutinize their private banking clients.

"There are those in the law enforcement community who have called private banking little more than sanctioned money laundering," Rep. Spencer Bachus, the Alabama Republican who requested the GAO inquiry, said in a statement Wednesday.

"Private banking" describes a host of special services that banks provide to wealthy customers.

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