Bank Accounts Closed for Personal Beliefs
The recent increase in politically motivated bank account closures should propel families to reconsider what financial institutions they use. Several banks discriminated against their clients based on religion and political beliefs when those beliefs did not align with progressive “values”.
In Britain, Nigel Farage, a British broadcaster and former politician, recently had his Coutts bank account closed for having the “wrong” political viewpoints.
“I believe Coutts targeted me on personal and political grounds, for its report reads rather like a pre-trial brief drawn up by the prosecution in a case against a career criminal.”
Coutts tried to cover up the real reason for closing his account by spreading a series of lies and false information.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has also been repeatedly accused of discriminating against customers who have ties to religious groups or political organizations. The Attorney General of Kentucky, Daniel Cameron, has outlined that while JPMorgan praises itself for its culture of inclusivity and the great financial opportunities it offers to its customers, it does not seem to extend these perks to all clients, especially those with conservative views. Cameron shared that Kentucky is a “conservative state with conservative voters. As recently as 2021, Chase apparently considered these Kentuckians, of both political parties, to hold views that promote “hate, violence, racial intolerance, [and] terrorism[.] And while the bank reversed past decisions that were based on such discriminatory judgments, Chase seemingly has made no institutional changes to prevent similar discrimination in the future.”
JPMorgan should refrain from praising itself as an inclusive institution when it actively engages in discrimination by denying products and services to its conservative clientele. In 2008, JPMorgan received a $25 billion bailout from the federal government. The government should, thus, ensure that the company abides by the same standards of inclusivity that government officials are expected to reflect and ghat it welcomes a wide array of opinions and beliefs.
“The too-big-to-fail banks are backstopped by all taxpayers – their executives’ salaries, their depositors’ assets, their investors’ capital, the whole thing..This being the case, they must be forbidden from any sort of discrimination against any legal clients, against any legal industries, and on any other nonobjective grounds.”
Governing officials should hold banks accountable for their decisions by preventing them from discriminating against businesses and individuals. Large banks that are supported through government funding during times of crisis should be held to strict policies against discrimination.
“Threats to freedom don’t just come from the government, but from major corporations like financial institutions and big tech companies that have concentrated power over essential services and communication channels,” writes Jeremy Tedesco from ADF.
To help clarify which businesses are conservative-friendly, the Alliance Defending Freedom(ADF) released a Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index. This index ranks a wide range of corporations based on how they treat customers who have diverse religious and political viewpoints.
Fidelity Information Services and M&T Bank ranked the highest on the ADF Business Index for their banking services and for going as far as offering staff training on religious diversity.
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