Members of the United States Senate are warning big banks to abstain from predatory and discriminatory practices against gun stores and firearms-based businesses during the recent COVID19 pandemic. Banks are using recovery funds as a bludgeon against industries they politically oppose.
Nineteen Senators, led by U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), chair of the Senate Banking Committee, authored a letter April 28th to Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Munchin, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and Small Business Administration administrator, Jovita Carranza, warning them not to deny business funding for political reasons. The letter referred to numerous instances of either gun stores being denied federal relief, or major corporations and big banks adopting and expressing anti-gun policies.
The Senatorial letter demanded that such agencies either explain how such funds are being distributed in a manner that is not politically motivated, or otherwise to enact regulations that will insure such bias does not occur in the future distribution of funds.
The Senate letter stated:
“A small but vocal minority has weaponized federally-backed banks against politically-disfavored businesses that operate in good faith and compliance with the law, by denying them financial services based on political reasons that have nothing to do with creditworthiness.”
The Senators went straight for the jugular when addressing the problem, listing banks with an history of discriminatory practices against guns and gun owners. Since 2018, banks like Citibank and Bank of America have refused “new retail sector clients” that wont kowtow to their gun restrictive requirements for loans. As example, in the spring of 2018, the mentioned offending banks set up strict anti-gun qualifications for financing.
Some of the strict hurdles at Citibank and Bank of America to qualify for a loan include that borrowers must:
- Decline to sell firearms to 18- to 20-year-olds
- Pass background checks
- Stop offering so-called “high-capacity” magazines
- Opt out of the due-process protections contained within the Brady Bill
- Refuse loans to any manufacturer that makes “military-style firearms” for civilians
Nothing New
The shenanigans are not just in the past couple of years though, they go much further back as in cases where internet transactions have been held up for “review” pending payment to small gun retailers. It is becoming increasingly apparent that many big banks have a practice of discriminatory behavior against those with whom they disagree.
GOA Director, Erich Pratt speaking at “Lobby Day” in January at the Virginia State Capitol.
Gun Owners of America (GOA) executive director, Erich Pratt was quoted in a Yahoo Finance article in 2018, as saying, that “Citigroup and Bank of America are threatening our Second-Amendment rights. They do not realize how much more there is to lose than to gain.” Pratt continued that “Our members will take direct action to such discriminatory lending practices by these banks.”
In that same article, Charles Adcox, as a member of GOA, is quoted as saying, that he had “stopped accepting Citi and Bank of America credit cards” at his Missouri gun shop Black River Armory in response to their new policy. “My more loyal customers don’t mind paying in cash. Some even wish to drop their credit-card companies for gun-friendly alternatives,” Adcox told Reuters.
Justified Criticism
In 2018, the NRA started running an advertisement campaign criticizing both Citibank and Bank of America online. They noted that Citibank was potentially “encouraging retailers to violate anti-discrimination laws“.
Also, during the 2018 banking attack on firearms and gun stores, Senate Banking Committee chairman Mike Crapo chastised Citibank and Bank of America for attempting to “manage social policy”.
Professor of Banking Law at Scalia Law School, J.W. Verret, said that bank gun policies that alienate their own customers appeared to be a “poor strategy” to gain business when instead they lost customers.He said at a time when they had stood to gain from a political push to cut red tape across the financial industry they in fact reduced their access to lawmakers and regulators.
Not Politically Correct
In their April letter to agencies the Senators went after offenders such as Citibank, Bank of America JP Morgan Chase and others.
Author Larry Keane writing in an Ammoland article said:
Each of these banks has taken discriminatory stances against the firearms industry, denying financial services unless manufacturers and retailers adopt their views on gun control. It isn’t just the firearm industry that’s been victimized by the corporate virtue signalers. These banking institutions, along with credit card processors and financial service providers, also targeted the oil and gas industry, coal, private corrections and other politically disfavored industries.
These are all banking institutions which use taxpayer funds not only to bail them out but to insure them against losses. They are literally playing politics with American’s taxpayer dollars – again – at a time when America is in a financial crisis.
Specifically, the senators are asking Sec. Munchin and Chairman Powell how the White House and the Small Business Administration is going to ensure the Paycheck Protection Program and SBA disaster relief funds are distributed in an “unbiased manner.” The senators also want to know how the Trump Administration is communicating to the banks that now, more than any other time, isn’t when banks should be playing favorites with money that isn’t theirs and what the administration and SBA will do when it learns these banks do it anyway.
[Banks] are literally playing politics with American’s taxpayer dollars – again – at a time when America is in a financial crisis.
Keane continued in his commentary that:
The senators have reason to be wary. They watched these taxpayer-protected banks do this before, with no accountability. In 2008, taxpayers came to the rescue when the banking industry was crashing. A cool $16.8 trillion dollar check was paid out by taxpayers to keep banks afloat because they were considered “too big to fail.” But they turned around and failed the taxpayer. They used those funds that came from everyday taxpayers, from the firearm and ammunition industry, from oil and gas and private corrections among others, and wrote new policies that said if these industries didn’t adhere to their “social standards,” they’d lose out on the financial services they need to survive.
This is discriminatory policy typical of an international cartel opposed to nationalism and, manufacturers and citizens, protecting one’s own country. The fact that they have a history of discriminatory behavior, they have had policies that punished manufacturers and small business owners violating citizen rights, and that U.S. Senators are now calling them out for violating the law speaks volumes about the political power they are throwing around, especially when we don’t hear about it.
Keane continues:
U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.)
That’s why Sen. Cramer introduced the Freedom Financing Act, S. 821. This bill, along with the U.S. House of Representatives companion bill, H.R. 2079 by Congressman Roger Williams (R-Texas), would work to end discriminatory lending practices of major banking institutions that seek to circumvent the legislative process and set social policy from the boardroom. But banks don’t seem to be getting the message. They continue to scoff at lawmakers’ warnings that they’re abusing their authority and crushing free commerce by picking winners and losers like it’s a popularity contest.
Citbank’s CEO Michael Corbat actually tried selling his bank’s policy of discriminating against Second Amendment-protected businesses as “good practice.” This is the same bank that got at $45 billion bailout on the backs of taxpayers, only to turn around and attempt to push policies that went beyond the law. That decision cost Citibank a $600 million Louisiana road improvement investment project because they interfered with the lawful commerce-in-arms.
Still Happening
Other banks weren’t paying attention. In 2018, Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan refused to buckle under political pressure to deny firearm manufacturers financial services, saying, “I don’t know if banks or credit card companies or any other financial institution should be the arbiter of what an American can buy.” That changed, though. Sloan retired in June 2019, just two months after Wells Fargo and other banks got “failing grades” from gun control radicals Guns Down America. This week, the new CEO Charles Scharf reported the bank’s relationship with the NRA is “declining,” adding the bank would no longer participate in line of credit or mortgage commitments. It’s not coincidental that Wells Fargo got the failing grade, backed off financing with gun-related organizations and at the same time gave $10 million over three years to the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, a gun control research program.Big banks continue to benefit off the backs of American taxpayers, even as they pick winners and losers outside of the framework of the legislative process. Public policy is decided by those who are elected by the people and remain accountable to the people for their decisions. Banks have demonstrated an antipathy to taxpayers and their concerns, instead shoving their politically-driven ideas down from their high-rise corporate boardrooms.
The 19 U.S. senators are right to demand answers and accountability. Banks have proven they won’t use tax dollars to benefit taxpayers. They will use them, though, as a way to crush businesses they despise.
Michael Reed is Editor and Publisher of The Standard newspaper and TheStandardSC YouTube channel. Please share freely and donate to The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is too often ignored by the dominant media.
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