‘Banks should not be able to discriminate against lawful customers on the basis of social policy’
A pair of Republican senators introduced a bill on Friday that they say will prevent large financial institutions from denying service to gun and ammunition makers and dealers.
Sens. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.) and John Kennedy (R., La.) introduced S821, the Freedom Financing Act, in an effort to keep banks with more than $10 billion in assets from denying services to members of the gun industry. The Republicans said the bill was designed to prevent major financial institutions from effectively crippling legal gun transactions they don’t like. They said the banking industry should not be able to decide whether Americans can lawfully purchase legal gun products.
“It’s not a bank’s job to create policy,” Kennedy said in a statement. “They need to leave the policymaking to Congress. Banks should not be able to discriminate against lawful customers on the basis of social policy.”
“A small number of banks controlling most of the financial sector could effectively illegalize legal commerce by refusing to finance certain industries or process certain transactions,” Cramer said. “Look no further than pro-Second Amendment industries where such discrimination has already occurred. Big banks should not be the arbiters of constitutionality.”
The legislation comes after a series of moves by the country’s biggest banks to try and restrict what firearms are made by gun companies as well as to whom they’re sold. Bank of America announced in 2018 it would no longer work with companies that produce “military-style firearms.” JP Morgan Chase also said it would limit its business with gun companies in 2018. Citibank went further and said it wouldn’t work with any company that sells so-called high capacity magazines or sells firearms to adults between the age of 18 and 21.
Wells Fargo has faced pressure from gun-control activists to adopt similar policies but has bucked the trend and decided to continue to do business with gun companies. read more
It’s only a pair of republicans – and one of the few with a pair.
That smug crook mcconell will kill it.
It’s about damn time
I look forward to Trump signing it – in January 2021, after the GOP retakes the House. Won’t happen until then.
Well good on Wells Fargo. I might have to move my fund(s) to them.
Unfortunately, my current bank will miss me like the Sahara misses a few grains of sand.
I had been thinking about leaving Wells Fargo over all their other issues, but maybe now I’ll stay a while…
I can not stand wells fargo for reasons I will not get in to on this forum, BUT I give them credit for not alienating 50% of their customers…. piss on the others and if chase hadn’t purchased my existing mortgage (<3%), they would not receive a penny from me.
THIS BANK SUCK
"Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." Geo. Orwell
The best solution would be to dust off the anti-trust laws and break up those big banks into hundreds of small banks.
This bill sounds nice. It would have been nicer had it been introduced back when the republicans held both houses. Oh well; nice symbolic gesture.
Nice gesture, but Republicans are still worthless, spineless, twat progressives. If your bank does this cancel your account, tell them why, and go elsewhere. My trust has a shelf life of once.