Bank of America has finally scrapped a controversial rule that critics say had sparked the “debanking” of charities and businesses associated with conservative religious groups, On The Money has learned.
BofA CEO Brian Moynihan has, along with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, come under fire from President Trump for denying him banking services following his first term in 2021. As first reported by The Post, insiders say the banks were under pressure from the Biden administration to snub Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
The banks’ shunning of Trump and MAGA – which came amid Biden’s politicization of US agencies such as the Fed, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, and the FDIC – was based at the time on the so-called reputational risk clause in federal regulations to deny services.
Evangelical organizations faced even more pressure, right-leaning activists and bank executives say: In addition to reputation risk, they were slammed with a once widely-used rule across the financial-services industry that could deny services based on religious “viewpoint.”
The rule allowed woke bank administrators to cancel evangelical groups from their platforms on the grounds that opposing progressive cultural norms, such as same-sex marriage, was tantamount to hate speech.
Last year, most major banks like JPM ditched the “viewpoint” rule following attacks from conservative activists suggesting it was illegal.
Bank of America, meanwhile, was the lone holdout – until recently. On the Money has learned that in late June, BofA amended its code of conduct to explicitly state that discrimination based on religious viewpoint is no longer allowed.
“While we have been very clear that politics is not a factor in our decisions, we received thoughtful input from a range of stakeholders and agreed it is best to explicitly add that to our Code of Conduct,” a spokesman said. “Religious views are not a factor in any account closing decision. Bank of America is proud to provide services to about 120,000 non-profits associated with religious organizations around the country.”
JPMorgan pointed to its 2023 annual letter to shareholders, which read, “We have not turned away — and will not turn away — customers because of their political or religious affiliations.”
The Post also reported that as many as 12 banks rejected Trump just after his first term ended. Other right-leaning businesses associated with the MAGA movement and heterodox sectors like crypto say they also faced “debanking”.
BofA’s surrender comes as Trump has recently issued an executive order that bans debanking over soft, nebulous, often political considerations. But it’s also a major victory for an economist named Jerry Bowyer, the CEO of Bowyer Research.
Bowyer’s proxy consultancy firm has focused on getting big companies to root left-wing politics out of their business practices. He has been tackling the religious debanking issue with the likes of JPM and BofA since 2022 – years before President Trump’s recent outburst that grabbed headlines nationwide.
Bowyer was able to get a shareholder vote on the JPM ballot to end viewpoint debanking in 2023. He lost the vote – but it jumpstarted a dialogue that eventually led to JPM to change its policies.
He told On The Money he discovered BofA’s “viewpoint” on religious debanking after it booted an evangelical church in Tennessee from its platform. BofA cited the church’s affiliation with a debt collector in Uganda. The church countered that the business was a way to help people in the impoverished country find work.
“We met with them several times about this and asked them to change the language and they refused; they just blew us off,” Bowyer said, unaware that the rule had been changed just a few weeks ago.
Informed by On The Money that his work sparked a change in bank policy, Bowyer said: “Better late than never.”
