Treasury Department Official Claims State Laws Against Debanking Could Hurt National Security

Last week a U.S. Treasury official reportedly wrote a letter to lawmakers criticizing state measures intended to combat “debanking.”

In recent years news outlets have reported how government policies encourage banks to designate conservative organizations as posing a “high risk” — giving the banks an excuse to close their accounts.

As a result, some states have passed laws prohibiting financial institutions from closing bank accounts based on an organization’s beliefs or who it chooses to associate with.

The U.S. Treasury Department apparently sees that as a problem. In his letter to lawmakers, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson reportedly said, “State laws interfering with financial institutions’ ability to comply with national security requirements heighten the risk that international drug traffickers, transnational organized criminals, terrorists and corrupt foreign officials will use the U.S. financial system to launder money, evade sanctions and threaten our national security.”

But there is evidence that the U.S. Treasury Department has actually weaponized banks and other financial institutions against conservative organizations.

The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has released a report that found:

  • After the events of January 6, 2021, federal law enforcement officials from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the FBI initiated multiple discussions with financial institutions to discuss ways financial institutions could share customer information with federal law enforcement outside of normal legal processes.
  • Law enforcement and private institutions shared intelligence through a web portal run by the Domestic Security Alliance Council — a partnership led by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
  • The U.S. Treasury Department gave banks and other financial institutions guiding “typologies” — patterns that could be used to identify suspicious people or activities — including search terms and patterns like “TRUMP” and “MAGA”, and encouraged financial institutions to comb through transactions for terms like, “Bass Pro Shops,” “Cabela’s,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods” when looking for “Homegrown Violent Extremism.”
  • “Americans doing nothing other than shopping or exercising their Second Amendment rights were being tracked by financial institutions and federal law enforcement.”

In 2021 Family Council’s credit card processor terminated our account after designating our organization as “high risk.”

At 10:29 AM on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, our office received a terse email from our credit card processor — a company owned by JPMorgan Chase — saying, “Unfortunately, we can no longer support your business. We wish you all the luck in the future, and hope that you find a processor that better fits your payment processing needs.”

Within sixty seconds, our account was terminated and and Family Council could no longer accept donations online. All we can do is speculate that our conservative principles and our public policy work might have had something to do with the decision to close our account.

Unfortunately, other organizations have had similar experiences as well. In fact, corporate shareholdersstate attorneys generalcongressmen, and news outlets all have expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly labeled as “high risk” or “hate groups” and subsequently debanked.

Banks that are too big to fail should also be too big to discriminate. Nobody should have their bank account closed for what they believe.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

JPMorgan Chase Changes Policy That Led to Politicized Debanking of Conservatives

On Tuesday Reuters reported that JPMorgan Chase changed a policy that had contributed to politicized debanking of conservative organizations.

Family Council has written repeatedly about how politicized debanking by JPMorgan Chase and others has hurt charities and people of faith.

In 2021, our credit card processor, WePay — a company owned by JPMorgan Chase — canceled our account with virtually no notice and no explanation. We eventually learned WePay had designated us a “high risk” client.

The only conclusion we could draw was that our conservative principles prompted the cancelation.

Reuters reports that JPMorgan Chase has changed WePay’s policy, writing,

An archived webpage shows that as recently as August, merchants using JPMorgan’s WePay service had to agree to not accept payments or use the service in connection with “social risk issues.” The bank defined those as “subject to allegation and impacts related to hate groups, systemic racism, sexual harassment and corporate culture.”

That language no longer appears on the WePay terms of service

This language about “social risk issues” and “hate groups” likely could have been used by WePay to debank legitimate, conservative groups.

Corporate shareholders, state attorneys general, congressmen, and news outlets all have expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly labeled as “high risk” or “hate groups” and subsequently debanked as a result of policies like this one. This policy change by JPMorgan’s WePay is a remarkable step forward.

Banks that are too big to fail should also be too big to discriminate. Nobody should have their bank account closed for what they believe.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Arkansas ESG Oversight Committee Blocks Financial Service

Arkansas’ ESG Oversight Committee made headlines this week by opting to keep TD Bank Group and TD Securities on its list of financial service providers that allegedly discriminate against fossil fuel and energy companies. Other companies on the list include Goldman Sachs & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Royal Bank of Canada, RBC Capital Markets, UBS Group AG, UBS Securities, Nomura Asset Management, Nomura Securities, Credit Suisse Group AG, and Credit Suisse Securities LLC.

As corporations increasingly make decisions based on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors, Arkansas’ lawmakers have enacted legislation addressing financial discrimination against fossil fuels and related energy companies.

While many are concerned about businesses being driven by radical environmental agendas, it’s worth pointing out the “Social” element of ESG allegedly has caused some conservative organization to have their bank accounts closed.

Family Council has written repeatedly about how politicized de-banking hurts charities, conservative causes, and people of faith.

In 2022, Chase abruptly closed the account of Ambassador Sam Brownback’s National Committee for Religious Freedom with little warning or explanation, and PayPal similarly disabled the account of a group called the Free Speech Union.

In 2021, our credit card processor — a company owned by Chase Bank — canceled our account with virtually no notice and no explanation. The only conclusion we could draw was that our conservative principles prompted the cancelation.

Recently the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report indicating the federal government actually weaponized banks against conservatives following the events of January 6, 2021.

The report shows that federal law enforcement officials from the Treasury Department and the FBI quietly contacted financial institutions to discuss ways financial institutions could share customer information with federal law enforcement outside of normal legal processes.

The report further revealed the Treasury Department provided banks and financial institutions with information listing legitimate, conservative groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom, American Family Association, Family Research Council, and many others as “Hate Groups” alongside the KKK and the American Nazi Party.

In April, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin signed a letter with 14 other state attorneys general asking Bank of America to come clean about its de-banking practices.

We appreciate Arkansas’ policymakers being willing to stand up for transparency and accountability at financial institutions. Nobody should have their bank account canceled because of what they believe.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.