JPMorgan Chase Discloses Government Inquiry into Debanking

Religious Freedom, ,

Last week, JPMorgan Chase disclosed the financial giant is responding to authorities over alleged debanking practices.

Over the past four years, congressional testimony and news stories have highlighted how federal officials and financial institutions targeted conservative organizations through “reputational risk” policies.

Conservatives deemed “high risk” could have their bank accounts closed without warning and without explanation. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and other major financial institutions have been accused of debanking law-abiding Americans.

During the Biden Administration, the U.S. Treasury Department gave financial institutions an analysis titled, “Bankrolling Bigotry” that listed legitimate, conservative groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom, the American College of Pediatricians, American Family Association, Eagle Forum, Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, National Organization for Marriage, and the Ruth Institute as “Hate Groups” alongside the KKK and the American Nazi Party.

The “Bankrolling Bigotry” analysis also outlines ideas on policies and laws aimed at preventing these groups from fundraising. Officials from the Treasury Department distributed this document to banks and financial institutions in January of 2021, calling it an “overview on the funding of American hate groups.”

We also now know the U.S. Treasury Department gave banks and other financial institutions guiding “typologies” — patterns they could use to identify suspicious people or activities — that included search terms and patterns like “TRUMP” and “MAGA.”

The department 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.”

These problems went largely unreported until Congress began asking serious questions about debanking.

In a quarterly Securities Exchange Commission filing submitted on November 4, JPMorgan Chase said it is responding to government inquiries, writing:

In August 2025, the President of the United States issued an Executive Order entitled “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans” that addressed access to financial services and directed several actions by certain federal agencies, to include a review and revision of their internal policies and manuals. JPMorgan Chase is responding to requests from government authorities and other external parties regarding, among other things, the Firm’s policies and processes and the provision of services to customers and potential customers. Certain of these matters are at various stages, including reviews, investigations, and legal proceedings.

It’s worth pointing out in August, President Trump signed an executive order to protect fair banking for all Americans, and JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have taken steps this year to prevent politically motivated debanking.

In 2021 Family Council’s credit card processor — a company owned by JPMorgan Chase — 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 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 60 seconds, Family Council could no longer accept donations online. The processor never explained why we were labeled “high risk.” 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, this is not an isolated incident. Other organizations have had similar experiences as well. In fact, corporate shareholders, state attorneys general, members of Congress, and news outlets have all expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly labeled as “high risk” or “hate groups” and subsequently debanked.

Family Council is grateful to the many people and organizations who have stood up against debanking in recent years. After all, 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.

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Small Business Administration to Lenders: Stop Debanking

Religious Freedom, ,

The Small Business Administration recently sent a letter to 5,000 lenders instructing them to end politicized debanking. Lenders who fail to do so will “lose their good standing” with the SBA and will be subject to additional punitive measures.

Since 2021, congressional testimony and news stories have highlighted how federal officials and financial institutions targeted conservative organizations through “reputational risk” policies. Conservatives deemed “high risk” could have their bank accounts closed without warning and without explanation.

During the Biden Administration, the federal Treasury Department gave banks and financial institutions an analysis titled “Bankrolling Bigotry” that listed legitimate, conservative groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom, the American College of Pediatricians, American Family Association, Eagle Forum, Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, National Organization for Marriage, and the Ruth Institute as “Hate Groups” alongside the KKK and the American Nazi Party.

The “Bankrolling Bigotry” analysis also outlines ideas on policies and laws aimed at preventing these groups from fundraising. Officials from the Treasury Department distributed this document to banks and financial institutions in January of 2021, calling it an “overview on the funding of American hate groups.”

We also now know the U.S. Treasury Department gave banks and other financial institutions guiding “typologies” — patterns they could use to identify suspicious people or activities — the included search terms and patterns like “TRUMP” and “MAGA.”

The department 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.”

These problems went largely unreported until congress began asking serious questions about debanking.

In recent years, corporate shareholders, state attorneys general, congressmen, federal investigators, and news outlets all have expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly debanked.

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 Family Council could no longer accept donations online. The company never explained why we were labeled “high risk.” All we could do was speculate that our conservative principles and our public policy work might have had something to do with the decision.

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

Stories like these are part of the reason President Trump recently signed an executive order against debanking. The purpose of the order is to guarantee fair banking for all Americans. The Small Business Administration’s new directive tracks with that executive order.

To their credit, JPMorgan Chase has taken steps to prevent religiously-motivated debanking, and Bank of America has finally done the same. That’s a good thing, but more still needs to be done to prevent debanking in the future.

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

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Debanking Isn’t Rare: ADF Attorney

Religious Freedom,

Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jeremy Tedesco recently took to social media to explain that debanking is not “rare” in America.

His comments come as Reuters and other media outlets seem to be trying to whitewash debanking or dismiss it altogether.

Since 2021, congressional testimony and news stories have highlighted how federal officials and financial institutions targeted conservative organizations through “reputational risk” policies. Conservatives deemed “high risk” could have their bank accounts closed without warning and without explanation.

During the Biden Administration, the federal Treasury Department gave banks and financial institutions an analysis titled “Bankrolling Bigotry” that listed legitimate, conservative groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom, the American College of Pediatricians, American Family Association, Eagle Forum, Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, National Organization for Marriage, and the Ruth Institute as “Hate Groups” alongside the KKK and the American Nazi Party.

The “Bankrolling Bigotry” analysis also outlines ideas on policies and laws aimed at preventing these groups from fundraising. Officials from the Treasury Department distributed this document to banks and financial institutions in January of 2021, calling it an “overview on the funding of American hate groups.”

We also now know the U.S. Treasury Department gave banks and other financial institutions guiding “typologies” — patterns they could use to identify suspicious people or activities — the included search terms and patterns like “TRUMP” and “MAGA.”

The department 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.”

These problems went largely unreported until congress began asking serious questions about debanking.

But as of today, corporate shareholders, state attorneys general, congressmen, federal investigators, and news outlets all have expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly labeled as “high risk” or “hate groups” and subsequently debanked.

Jeremy Tedesco is an attorney who serves as Alliance Defending Freedom’s Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President of Corporate Engagement. In a statement issued on X, Tedesco called debanking a “silenced” problem, writing,

Debanking is severely under-reported. Most victims I’ve spoken to won’t go public—fear of the stigma and of losing access to their money is that real. . . .The corporate media’s framing of debanking as “rare” is wrong and misleading. Victims rarely file formal complaints—most are too afraid of being shut out completely.

We can say from experience that Mr. Tedesco is exactly right.

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. The company never explained why were labeled “high risk.” All we could do was speculate that our conservative principles and our public policy work might have had something to do with the decision.

Filing a consumer complaint or going to court seemed pointless at the time, because the processor’s Terms of Service said it could terminate our account for any reason or no reason at all. Apparently that’s what they decided to do to us.

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.

Stories like these are part of the reason President Trump recently signed an executive order against debanking. The purpose of the order is to guarantee fair banking for all Americans.

To their credit, JPMorgan Chase has taken steps to prevent religiously-motivated debanking, and Bank of America has finally done the same. That’s a good thing.

We appreciate groups like Alliance Defending Freedom who have worked so hard to fight against debanking. After all, banks that are too big to fail are too big to discriminate.

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

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