Debanking

Example

Jay Hobbs:

"Debanking in the real world: That may sound far-fetched, but it’s an eerily similar description of how JPMorgan Chase has treated the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF) over the past year. Led by former U.S. Ambassador Sam Brownback, NCRF exists to defend “religious freedom equally for all Americans and all their religious communities.”

Its National Advisory Board includes former members of Congress, as well as former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Alliance Defending Freedom Counselor to the CEO and President Michael Farris, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, and Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, along with Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu religious freedom advocates.

Yet, despite the established credibility of NCRF—not to mention its legal status as a 501(c)(4) non-profit, which should have been enough on its own to qualify it to hold a bank account—the nation’s largest bank canceled the nonprofit’s newly created checking account without notice earlier this year.

Why? At first, no one at the bank could say.

After weeks of being stonewalled by various bank employees, NCRF was finally told that Chase “could potentially consider reopening the account” if NCRF took three actions: 1) disclose a list of donors who contributed more than 10 percent of its operating budget; 2) hand over a list of political candidates NCRF intended to support; and 3) divulge the criteria NCRF uses to decide who to support politically.

Of course, NCRF declined the offer. That information has nothing to do with a bank’s responsibilities to its account holders or vice-versa and isn’t required by any relevant banking regulation. Plus, by all indications, Chase isn’t prying into the giving rosters of any other advocacy groups.

It’s hard to conceive of this as anything other than an example of “debanking,” a dangerous cocktail of politically obsessed cancel culture and the financial services industry.'"

(https://adflegal.org/article/debanking-cancel-cultures-newest-threat)