Seasoning Requirements

Did you know about this? I didn't.

So, our loan officer contacted us saying our bank statement didn't reflect quite enough money for a down payment. He said we needed to provide documentation from a bank, showing the money in there for at least 90 days.

Well, ends up I forgot to send him the statement for one of our accounts, but that's beside the point.

We have, what is commonly termed, "mattress money": money not deposited into any financial institution, but that we keep on private premises.

Did you know that you can't use "mattress money" to buy a home? After googling it, it seems that following 9/11 the government put in place some restrictions to prevent money laundering. Their target was to prevent funneling funds to terrorist organizations. Something like that.
But in practice? They want to keep track of your money.

I'm not really fond of this. If I choose to keep a certain amount of money out of a bank, and in my own personal possession, isn't that my business?
Does the government really have the right to prevent me from buying something with my own money? I say 'no'.

In fact, if we were to just deposit all of this money into our account now, they would require written proof of where it all came from.

Umm... a little here, a little there, gifts, overtime, whatever.

What if our family wanted to gift us the down payment? Not good enough? Has to sit there for 90 days?

This just doesn't make any sense to me. Not sure how it really prevents any illegal activity from happening. Wouldn't the terrorist groups (or other white collar criminal) most likely know this rule and just make sure they deposited it for 90 days before using it?
Seems to me any group worth being perceived as a real threat, would also be smart enough to follow the rules to a "T" so as to escape detection. So how the heck is this supposed to prevent anything? You know, except preventing hard-working folks like us, who happen to utilize an... old fashioned... method of saving from using their own money as they choose.

Seems kinda crappy to me.