On the recordJuly 25, 2012
Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The Florida International Bankers Association has reported to me that, over the past several months, they have seen as much as $300 million leaving United States banks for overseas banks. Why is this money leaving the United States, and what can we do to stop the hemorrhaging? The adoption of this amendment will stop the hemorrhaging of hundreds of millions of dollars--soon to be billions of dollars if this amendment is not adopted. This is according to the studies on earlier, scaled-back proposals by the Internal Revenue Service. For nearly 100 years, the United States has had in place a policy that encourages foreigners to put their money in our banks in the United States. We have told them that the United States is a welcoming and safe place for their deposits. Earlier this year, apparently clueless about the financial conditions we were in as a Nation, the IRS finalized a new rule to take effect in January 2013 that basically sends the message to law-abiding foreign depositors that U.S. banks don't want their money. Under this rule, the United States would no longer provide these law-abiding depositors with the confidentiality that they've had and that they need. The new IRS rules would impose cumbersome new reporting requirements for law-abiding foreign depositors and for foreign depositors who live in nations where corruption is rampant.…





