"Debanking" occurs when someone experiences the sudden closure or denial of financial accounts by banks and payment processors.
The practice reportedly started under the Obama presidency with a policy called "reputational risk," which encouraged banks to refuse business to customers who were politically disfavored by some members of the public.
In recent years, vocal Americans (typically on the conservative side of the spectrum) have lost access to critical banking services because of their espoused political beliefs.
Debanking of conservative organizations and individuals was a significant issue during the Biden administration. It even happened to the American Family Association (AFA), where Walker Wildmon is a vice president.
"The American Family Association's been debanked on at least two occasions," Wildmon recently said on his radio program. "The first occasion was with the Stripe payment platform."
Stripe, a California-based payment processing company, dropped AFA over the non-profit’s biblical and moral stance in 2020.
"We've also been debanked by Capital One, which is owned by JPMorgan Chase at this point and is actually under the heading of a bank," Wildmon added.
When President Donald Trump signed the "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for all Americans" executive order last August, he said he and his family were cut off by Bank of America and by JPMorgan Chase after his first term in the White House.
"The banks discriminated against me very badly, and I was very good to the banks," Trump told CNBC.
Brian Knight, senior counsel attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), said even though this has been a problem for several individuals and organizations, Congress has not been too helpful.
"States can pass what are called fair access … anti-discrimination laws," he noted. "There are several different flavors of these floating around, but the one that we at ADF have worked on says, 'You can't deny someone services or cancel their account.'"
ADF's version, which applies only to the largest institutions, prevents them from discriminating against someone on the basis of their constitutionally protected speech, constitutionally protected exercise of religion, or lawful industry.
"That doesn't mean that a bank has to serve everybody as if it's a public utility," Knight clarified. "There are any number of completely legitimate reasons why a bank wouldn't serve somebody."
But they cannot deny services for speech they deem "hateful."
Financial institutions tend to argue the account closures of high-profile figures like Trump are part of risk management or legal obligations rather than discrimination, but the broader issue of debanking has gained bipartisan attention, with some Democrats also citing concerns about conservative or religious groups losing access to financial services.
ADF also wants financial institutions that cut off someone's account to provide them with an explanation as to why.
In some cases of debanking in the past, people were not given a reason.
Editor's Note: American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
