[djrogers]

> I bought a house for cash in Las Vegas after the crash and the bank never once asked where I got the funds to do so. I'm pretty sure they were supposed to.

Umm, no. It only. I, but that's frightening. You have a right to privacy in a private transaction like that. Where you will run in to a ton of questions is when you use a big chunk of money for a down payment on a mortgage. In that case the bank wants to make sure you didn't borrow the down payment and get in over your head.

[pjc50]

The US has no general right to privacy, and all large transactions are potentially notifiable to the anti-money-laundering authorities. This is what HSBC got in a lot of trouble for not doing.

[djrogers]

Any notification would go as far as that - simple notification of a transaction. There's no requirement for the bank to investigate the source of your funds as part of a private transaction.