President Donald Trump called on Bank of America to serve conservatives Thursday at the World Economic Forum.
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said: asked President Trump asked a very simple question about his economic plans.
Trump ended his remarks by calling on Wall Street's biggest banks to stand with conservatives.
“By the way, speaking of you, you’ve done a great job, but I hope you start opening up your banks to conservatives, because a lot of conservatives don’t want banks to do any internal transactions. Because they're unhappy that they're not allowing it. It's a place called Bank of America,” the 47th president said.
President Trump then referenced JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, saying, “I want you and Jamie and all of you to open up your banks to conservatives, because you… Because what they're doing is wrong.”
“We serve more than 70 million customers, and we welcome conservatives,” Bank of America spokesman Bill Hardin said in a statement to Breitbart News. We are required to comply with extensive governmental rules and regulations, which may result in our decision to terminate relationships with our customers. We never close accounts for political reasons, and we don't have political litmus tests. ”
Conservatives, venture capitalists, and crypto companies have long complained about “debanking,” or the loss of access to banking services to individuals or groups based on their commercial activities or political affiliations.
For example, Dr. John Eastman, former constitutional law professor and senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, says: So why didn't you tell me why? ”
Republican attorneys general last year accused Bank of America of “some of the worst examples of bank breakup.” Bank of America denies such conduct.
Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said in November that joe rogan experience Elaborating on the federal government's move to “debank” businesses, he said:
On Thursday, Andreessen pointed out that Trump's wife and son had their bank accounts canceled, citing a quote from Melania Trump's book. melania:
A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson told Breitbart News: “We have never closed any accounts for political reasons and never will.” We follow legal and regulatory guidance and have long maintained that the current framework has issues that the U.S. government must address. We welcome the opportunity to work with the new administration and Congress on ways to remove regulatory ambiguity while preserving our nation's ability to combat financial crime. ”
At JP Morgan Unshakeables podcast, daimon spoke On the issue of bank account closures, the central blame is on the federal government, which is pressuring financial institutions to remove the accounts of “high-risk” individuals and businesses.
“But Mark is right that they put a lot of pressure on us and tell us what is high risk, and if we don't release someone's bank deposit, if something goes wrong. , all these examples where we could end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. So a lot of banks are making assumptions like, “We should fire these people, because if we don't fire them, we'll be fined.'' And you’ve seen it over and over again,” Dimon said.
Ben Walter, CEO of Chase's business banking division, said the Bank Secrecy Act alerts banks to customers and entities that may have ties to organized crime or other suspicious activity. It said it requires the development of risk-based anti-money laundering compliance.
This first debunking exercise became This practice was common during President Barack Obama's tenure through Operation Chokepoint, which discouraged banks from doing business with gun dealers and payday lenders.
The Biden administration similarly warned financial institutions about the alleged risks of working with the cryptocurrency industry.
According to the director's letter obtained At the request of crypto exchange Coinbase through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has pressured banks to retire crypto companies' bank accounts.
The Blockchain Association, a cryptocurrency industry group, said it has identified more than 30 cases of debanking in the cryptocurrency industry.
Republicans and President Trump are currently investigating and moving toward abolishing bank accounts.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said his committee would investigate the practice, and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said his committee would investigate the practice. It has been announced that a public hearing will be held on February 5th.
Scott said in a statement Friday.
Debanking is not American. All legitimate businesses deserve to be treated the same, regardless of political beliefs. Unfortunately, under Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Biden's regulators abused their powers, forcing financial institutions to cut off services to digital asset companies, politicians, and conservative businesses and individuals. This is unacceptable.
As Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, I look forward to working with President Trump, industry leaders, and members of Congress from both parties to stop this fraud.
President Trump called for U.S. leadership in digital financial technology in Thursday's executive order called It aims to “protect and promote fair and open access to banking services for all law-abiding citizens and private sector entities.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter at Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.