Senate committee plans hearing on debanking, reveals witnesses
The Senate Banking Committee is planning to hold a hearing on financial institutions' decisions to debank clients over various regulatory concerns and is urging those who have been affected to contact the committee to report their allegations.
"This hearing will provide an important opportunity to hear directly from Americans who operate federally legal businesses and have been debanked," Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., said in a statement.
"It will also allow the Banking Committee, and the American public, to learn more about whether there was improper influence by financial regulators. Debanking is unacceptable and un-American – this hearing is the first step in our efforts to hold bad actors accountable," Scott said.
The committee released an initial list of witnesses which includes Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of Anchorage Digital; Evan Hafer, founder and executive chairman of Black Rifle Coffee Company; and Stephen Gannon, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
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Scott is encouraging individuals and businesses who have been debanked to report allegations to committee staff ahead of the hearing.
The panel's hearing titled "Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America" is scheduled for Feb. 5 at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The hearing comes after President Donald Trump raised the issue of debanking during a question-and-answer session following his speech to the World Economic Forum last week.
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Trump called out Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon during an exchange with Moynihan in which Trump said, "You've done a fantastic job, but I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank – and that included a place called Bank of America… They don't take conservative business."
"And I don't know if the regulators mandated that because of [President Joe] Biden or what," Trump continued, "But you and [JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon] and everybody – I hope you're going to open your banks to conservatives, because what you're doing is wrong."
Federal laws and financial regulations can prompt banks to close accounts over concerns about things like money laundering or illicit financial activities. Both firms have disputed allegations that politics contributed to decisions to close the bank accounts of some clients.
"We serve more than 70 million clients, and we welcome conservatives," a Bank of America spokesperson told FOX Business. "We are required to follow extensive government rules and regulations that sometimes result in decisions to exit client relationships. We never close accounts for political reasons, and don’t have a political litmus test."
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A JPMorgan spokesperson said in a statement that the bank would "never close an account for political reasons, full stop. We follow the law and guidance from our regulators and have long said there are problems with the current framework that Washington must address."