Category: Business

President Donald Trump on Thursday called out one of America’s largest banks during a question-and-answer session with its CEO during the World Economic Forum, accusing the bank of not offering financial services to conservatives and rekindling a dispute over political debanking.

Trump told Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan during the session, “You’ve done a fantastic job, but I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank – and that included a place called Bank of America… They don’t take conservative business.”

“And I don’t know if the regulators mandated that because of [President Joe] Biden or what,” Trump continued, “But you and [JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon] and everybody – I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives, because what you’re doing is wrong.”

Banks including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have disputed allegations that politics contributed to decisions to close bank accounts.

TRUMP CONFRONTS BANK OF AMERICA CEO FOR NOT TAKING ‘CONSERVATIVE BUSINESS’

“We serve more than 70 million clients and we welcome conservatives,” a Bank of America spokesperson told FOX Business. “We are required to follow extensive government rules and regulations that sometimes result in decisions to exit client relationships. We never close accounts for political reasons and don’t have a political litmus test.”

A JPMorgan spokesperson said in a statement that the bank would “never close an account for political reasons, full stop. We follow the law and guidance from our regulators and have long said there are problems with the current framework that Washington must address.”

“We welcome the opportunity to work with the new Administration and Congress on ways to remove regulatory ambiguity while maintaining our country’s ability to address financial crime,” the spokesperson said.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP TAKES AIM AT WALL STREET IN REPORT CLAIMING BIG BANKS HAVE UNDERCUT FIREARMS INDUSTRY

In recent years, Republican attorneys general have sent letters to banks seeking explanations for debanking decisions involving various conservative organizations or businesses involved in controversial industries, like gun dealers.

Last year, a group of 16 attorneys general wrote to Wells Fargo about the closure of a Florida gun dealer’s account and said they believe the company used debanking as “a political tool to extend the policies of the Biden administration throughout the country.”

State financial officers have also raised concerns about debanking practices with Wall Street banks, as a group of more than a dozen state treasurers, auditors and controllers wrote to JPMorgan Chase last year to “convey our concern that the bank is engaged in what appears to be politically motivated debanking of certain industries, individuals, and groups.”

STATE FINANCIAL OFFICERS CALL ON JPMORGAN CHASE TO ADDRESS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED DE-BANKING

“President Trump is right and I’m glad he is bringing light to the unethical and most likely unlawful behavior of some of the nation’s largest financial institutions,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told FOX Business. “For years big banks, including Bank of America, have been debanking and discriminating against conservative and religious groups in favor of the left’s woke agenda.” 

“As Attorney General, I have been calling them out, demanding answers and action from them and I will continue to do everything I can to hold them accountable and bring their bad behavior to light. It’s refreshing to have a President who recognizes the problem and is joining the effort to stop it.”

REPUBLICAN AGS DEMAND WELLS FARGO ANSWER FOR ABRUPTLY CLOSING GUN DEALER’S ACCOUNT, OTHER WOKE POLICIES

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
JPM	JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.	265.95	+3.11	+1.18%
BAC	BANK OF AMERICA CORP.	46.39	+0.60	+1.31%
WFC	WELLS FARGO & CO.	77.43	-0.11	-0.14%

Federal laws and financial regulations can prompt banks to close accounts over concerns about things like money laundering or illicit financial activities, and one prominent bank leader thinks that firms should be able to be more forthcoming with clients about why such decisions are made.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon appeared on the firm’s “The Unshakeables” podcast and said in a discussion about challenges crypto firms have encountered with debanking that banks are not allowed to tell clients why they were debanked and their accounts closed.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

“I think we should be allowed to tell you,” Dimon said. “When we report stuff, the federal government should probably know about it and there should be far clearer lines about what we have to do and what we don’t have to do or things like that.”

FOX Business’ Breck Dumas contributed to this report.