President Donald Trump on Thursday accused the chief executives of two of the nation’s largest banks of refusing to serve conservatives, revisiting 2024 campaign talking points that the companies have denied.
Speaking via video link from a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump lashed out Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon participates in a Q&A session.
“I want you to start opening up your banks to conservatives because a lot of conservatives are complaining about banks not allowing them to do business in their banks, including a place called Bank of America,” Trump said.
“You and Jamie and everybody, I want you to open up your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong,” Trump said.
Moynihan, one of a handful of senior executives selected to pose questions to the president during the question-and-answer session, did not immediately respond to the allegation.
Both banks deny denying services to conservatives.
“We serve more than 70 million customers, we welcome conservatives and there are no political litmus tests,” a Bank of America official said in an email.
“We have never and will never close accounts for political reasons, full stop,” a JPMorgan spokesperson said in a statement. “We comply with the law and guidance from regulators and have long said Washington must address the current framework that exists. question.”
After the financial crisis broke out in 2008, partly due to poor lending standards by major banks, U.S. regulators step up pressure on lenders Remove clients from industries considered to be at higher risk of money laundering or fraud. This means payday lenders, pawn shops, gun dealers and people involved in pornography have their accounts withdrawn, often without any notice or explanation of why.
As recently as October last year, Trump singled out Bank of America and reiterated its discrimination against conservatives.
The charges may stem from charges brought by the state attorney general last year. In April, Kansas Attorney General Chris Kobach sent a letter to Moynihan accusing the bank of “deactivating the accounts of multiple mainstream religious groups over the past three years.”
In a May letter responding to Kobach, Bank of America said accounts were debanked for reasons including a change in the account’s stated purpose, expected level or type of account activity, or failure to verify certain documentation required by law.
According to Bank of America’s response, one account highlighted by Kobach was debanked for engaging in debt collection services, which was inconsistent with the Bank of America division that serviced the account.
“We want to make a very simple point clear: religious beliefs or beliefs based on political views are never a factor in any decisions related to our customer accounts,” the bank said in the letter. “Bank of America serves non-profit organizations affiliated with faith-based communities across the United States. For-profit organizations provide banking services. We have banking and investment relationships with approximately 120,000 faith-based clients in the United States.”
Influential figures around Trump continue to claim banks discriminate on the basis of religion or politics.
In November, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm that bears his name, Tell Podcaster Joe Rogan Dozens of startup founders have had their bank accounts canceled in recent years. Anderson has said he advises Trump on technology issues.
Bank of America shares rose more than 1% on Thursday, while JPMorgan shares were also higher.
The banking industry is seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of Trump’s election, in large part because of expectations that he will stifle Biden-era regulatory efforts, forcing banks to hold tens of billions of dollars in additional capital to cope with losses, adding to annual pressures Test to be less opaque and drop restrictions on credit card and overdraft limits.
