Released: February 23, 2007

B of A defends policy to issue credit cards without SSN

Source: Leslie A. Pappas, Delaware News Journal

Bank of America will continue a controversial pilot program in Los Angeles that markets credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers despite a national uproar, the bank said Thursday.

“We know some will find this unacceptable,” the bank’s chairman and CEO, Kenneth D. Lewis, wrote in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

The program is in full compliance with U.S. laws and the Patriot Act and is intended to help customers build a credit history, Lewis said.

“First, the program is not about illegal immigrants, and it never was,” said Lewis. “Second, we believe we have an obligation to serve all those in our country who are legally eligible to receive services. To do less would be discriminatory and unfair.”

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