Forbes.Com reports:

Government regulators issued a set of rules that require banks, securities brokers and dealers, mutual funds and other financial institutions to help the feds catch terrorists using their own dollars. There's little proof that the rules will help capture any terrorists, but software makers claim their anti-money-laundering programs could catch fraud.

bq. In an April 30 ruling, the Department of Treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and seven other federal regulatory bodies ordered that financial businesses have to implement systems that "determine whether the person [opening an account] appears on any list of known or suspected terrorist organizations," and maintain records of the information used to verify the person's identity.

The feds expect financial institutions to be in full compliance by Oct. 1. Failure to comply could result in criminal prosecution and multimillion-dollar fines. Prosecutors in New York, using the Patriot Act's provision to report suspicious activity, already slapped a $4 million fine on Broadway Bank for "failing to maintain a legally required anti-money-laundering program."

But the punchline is at the end:

Given the system's wealth of intelligence, banks are already looking to use their anti-money-laundering software to mine customer data for marketing purposes and enhance fraud-protection services.

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