Conforming with new anti-money laundering regulations, U.S. banks are closing the accounts of small business customers along the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border. The program is necessary to stem the transport and laundering of billions of dollars of illegal drug money, but unfortunately, there’s an unintended consequence: Legitimate small business owners who have been bank clients for decades are having their accounts closed also.

In an NPR.org report by Jude Joffee-Block, Alicia Martin, the American owner of the 43-year-old La Roca’s restaurant in Nogales, Mexico, recounts how she was called by representatives of Chase Bank who informed her they were closing her restaurant’s business account because they “couldn’t monitor it.”

“I said, ‘I have been with you for over 40 years, and you can’t monitor me?’ ” Martin says. “And she said, ‘Well don’t take it personally … because there have been some people that have been with us for 70 years, and we’re closing their accounts as well.’ ”

“I feel like we are being punished for somebody else’s deeds.”

Chase spokesperson Mary Jane Rogers confirmed the bank made a business decision to close fewer than 5,000 small foreign business accounts as it seeks to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.

Listen to the story here or on NPR.org.

Read the entire story on NPR.org: Border Businesses Lose Bank Accounts Amid Money Laundering Fears