Trump takes shot at Bank of America, revives claims of discrimination

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Trump takes shot at Bank of America, revives claims of discrimination

On Thursday, President Donald Trump accused the CEOs of the two largest American banks to refuse to serve the conservatives, thereby reviving a topic of conversation for the 2024 election campaign that contest the two companies.

When he spoke by video before a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), Trump fought violent criticism Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPmorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as part of a question and answer round.

“I hope you start to open your bank for conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks do not allow you to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,” said Trump.

“You and Jamie and everyone else, I hope you will open your banks for conservatives, because what you do is wrong,” said Trump.

Moynihan, who was one of the few managers who were selected to ask the president's questions during the question-and-answer round, did not react immediately to the accusation.

Both banks deny their services to the conservatives.

“We look after more than 70 million customers, we welcome conservatives and have no political litmus test,” said a Bank of America official in an email.

“We have never closed an account for political reasons and would never do it,” said a JPMorgan spokeswoman in a statement. “We adhere to the laws and guidelines of our regulatory authorities and have long said that there are problems with the current framework that Washington has to deal with.”

After the 2008 financial crisis, which was partly caused by poor lending standards at large banks, the US supervisory authorities increased the pressure on lenders to exclude customers in industries in which a higher risk of money laundering or fraud was. This meant that the accounts of Majoragkrediters, Pfandhäusern, firearm dealers and people who deal with pornography are often blocked, often without giving notice or without giving reasons.

It was only in October that Trump emphasized the Bank of America and repeated the claim that she discriminates conservatives.

The accusations could go back to accusations of the General Prosecutor of the past year. In April, the Attorney General of Kansas, Kris Kobach, sent a letter to Moynihan in which he accused the bank of having terminated the accounts of “several religious groups with mainstream views” in the past three years.

In a MAI description to Kobach, the Bank of America explained that accounts are relieved for reasons such as a change in the specified purpose, the expected scope or the type of activity in the account or the non-check of certain legally required documents.

According to the bank's answer, an account highlighted by Kobach was deleted because it claimed collection services.

“We want to create clarity in a very simple matter: religious beliefs or political beliefs never play a role in decisions in connection with the accounts of our customers,” says the bank's letter. “Bank of America offers banking services for non -profit organizations associated with faith communities in the entire United States. We maintain banking and investment relationships with around 120,000 customers. “

In a statement on Friday, the Bank of America said that it would talk to the Trump government about the regulations that sometimes lead to Debanking.

Influential people in Trump's environment continue to claim that banks discriminate against religion or politics.

In November, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the risk capital company, which bears his name, said Podcaster Joe Rogan that the bank account had been withdrawn from startup founders in recent years. Andreessen said he advised Trump on technology.

The Bank of America's shares rose by more than 1 %on Thursday, and the JPMorgan shares also increased.

The banking industry is considered one of the largest beneficiaries of the choice of Trump, which is largely due to the expectation that he would destroy the regulatory efforts of the bidet era to force the banks to hold additional capital in the double-digit billions Prevent, which leads to annual stress, tests are less opaque and efforts to limit credit card and overdraft restrictions are set.