Bank of America Updates Code of Conduct to Prevent Debanking
Last week news outlets reported Bank of America is updating its code of conduct to prevent debanking.
The news comes in the wake of Trump Administration executive order “guaranteeing fair banking for all Americans.”
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.
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.
Since then, JPMorgan Chase has taken steps to prevent religiously-motivated debanking. Now Bank of America is finally doing the same.
In a statement, our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom wrote,
“No American should ever fear that their bank will cancel them or deny them service because of their religious beliefs or political views. Bank of America has taken an important step forward in protecting against future discrimination against its customers. Over the past two years, ADF and our partners in both the private and public sectors have repeatedly engaged with Bank of America’s leadership to advocate for this change—one that is particularly crucial given Bank of America’s disturbing track record of debanking religious clients like U.S.-based Indigenous Advance Ministries, one of its supporting churches, and Timothy Two Project International. Bank of America is taking steps in the right direction to protect its customers from discrimination, but it has a long way to go to rebuild trust in the marketplace. We look forward to more banks following in the steps of JPMorgan Chase, and now Bank of America, as they come into compliance with President Trump’s recent executive order.”
We have written repeatedly about allegations that major financial institutions have deliberately debanked conservative individuals and organizations.
In 2021 Family Council’s credit card processor abruptly cancelled our account after designating our organization as “high risk.” Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. Other organizations have had similar experiences as well.
It’s good to see federal regulators and financial institutions finally taking steps to stop 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.
