No Thumbprint Required

by Bryan A. Thompson

June 16, 1998

Thumbprint required to cash check

On June 8, 1998, Mercantile bank of KS and MO implemented the “Thumbprint Signature” policy in an effort to reduce payroll check fraud.  When cashing a check, all non‑customers are required to present a photo ID, look squarely into the camera positioned strategically behind the teller and apply a thumbprint to the back of the check.

How criminals defeat the program

In a phone interview with Stanley Kirchner (sp?) of Mercantile Bank, it was learned that the bank will waive the fingerprint policy for account holders. If an individual refuses to apply a thumbprint, the bank will offer to open an account at that time. What are the requirements for opening an account? A driver’s license or state ID, which the bank claims is no longer sufficient to positively identify a person, and a $25 minimum deposit. No Thumbprint Required. In the Mercantile letter, the bank states the reason for instituting the policy is that "advances in desktop publishing have made counterfeiting easier." If the ID can be counterfeited, then the thumbprint policy doesn't protect them from the bank fraud, as any thief could show the counterfeit ID, open an account, and leave the bank with the cash.  

What the real effects of the policy are

If the payee refuses the thumbprint, he’s left with two choices:  Either open an account with Mercantile bank or deposit the check into an account at another financial institution and wait 5-10 business days for the funds to be transferred from Mercantile.  Mercantile benefits directly from the policy in two ways: Through the new accounts and an increase in cash flow, to both account-holders at Mercantile and to the bank itself.  On a personal level, I was forced to close my business when the U.S. Dept of Treasury refused to renew my business license without a copy of my fingerprints.

Why not just give them a thumbprint?

To have the 4th Amendment protections, and to keep them all these years, my fellow Americans had fight and die. Choosing to honor those people who fought and died for their beliefs means not voluntarily giving up that or any other right, privilege or protection. Trading freedom for security is something many Americans are willing to do, but the fact is that the security requires some measure of control, and since control is nothing more than an illusion, all that's accomplished is the loss of freedom.  You can have your precious American(ski?)  Constitutional rights, clean (or, at the least, free of ink) fingers, privacy and dignity, and the cash we owe you, if you'll just open an account at Mercantile Bank.  Otherwise, you wait.

In closing

When enough opposition to the policy is mounted, when enough civic‑minded individuals declare the policy to be both discriminatory and coercive, banks will have no alternative but to restore our fundamental rights to privacy. “The right to be left alone" is, in the words of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, "the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men."

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