Yesterday, President Trump directly attacked Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase for “debanking” conservatives in a virtual speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos. This broadside came as a delight to us, as we have confronted both these banks on this issue.
In response, Bank of America is running an ad that claims “we welcome conservatives,” and states “We would never close accounts for political reasons and don’t have a political litmus test.”
In December, NLPC filed a Bank of America shareholder proposal on the related issue of it handing over private financial data to the government without legal authority. The proposal was prompted by a report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that heavily criticized the bank for turning over customers’ financial and transaction data to federal authorities — most specifically, following January 6.
Bank of America has petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission to EXCLUDE our proposal. The company’s annual meeting is in April. If the bank truly “welcomes conservatives,” it should end its effort to kill our proposal, and engage with us in good faith about the issues it raises. Click here for a Daily Signal story by Fred Lucas about our proposal.
In 2023, NLPC sponsored a shareholder proposal at JPMorgan Chase asking it to disclose all requests it had received from the federal government to close customers’ accounts. However, the SEC allowed the bank to exclude our proposal.
The proposal was prompted by the case of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, founded by Sam Brownback, whose account was closed without explanation. Sam is the former U.S. Ambassador for Religious Freedom, and former Kansas Congressman, Senator and Governor.
At the same time JPMorgan allowed convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to keep his accounts open while he withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay the child-victims of his sex trafficking enterprise. Click here for more on JPMorgan’s hypocrisy.
President Trump singled out Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for criticism. They are two of the “wokest” corporate executives. (Dimon belittled our anti-DEI efforts at the same Davos meeting.) Both have repeatedly dissembled and misled on the issue of “debanking” customers.
NLPC was a pioneer in directly challenging big banks on this issue. President Trump is giving it the visibility it deserves. We will continue to pressure Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to stop discriminating against customers based on political viewpoint or party.
Photo credit: AP