No one should be denied access to basic financial services because of their political or religious beliefs.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency just issued a landmark report, however, revealing how big banks have discriminated against Christians and other mainstream conservatives specifically for their religious and political views.
The report detailed how big banks have used vague ‘reputational risk’ standards to punish and cancel accounts of faith-based nonprofits like ADF client Indigenous Advance. As the report made clear, debanking inflicts ‘real-world harm to customers and prospective customers’ like Indigenous Advance, whose Ugandan employees were forced to wait on delayed paychecks because of Bank of America’s decision to abruptly cancel the nonprofit’s accounts.
This rampant abuse on the part of financial institutions would be alarming enough on its own, but it gets worse.
The report also highlights the widespread influence played by far-left groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has recently been indicted on multiple counts, including on three counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank and one count of money laundering.
ADF has been deeply concerned about the rise of politicized debanking for years and has worked diligently to combat this unlawful behavior at every turn, including partnering with state legislators and federal officials to secure the fundamental freedoms of every American.
The OCC’s report underscores how states like Tennessee, Idaho, and South Carolina, which have all enacted laws to protect their citizens against discriminatory debanking, have ‘likely acted as a catalyst for changes in many banks.’ ADF commends the OCC and Trump administration for bringing this threat to light and acting decisively to bring meaningful change, and urges lawmakers in other states, and in Congress, to follow their lead.
