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The Trump White House has reportedly set its sights on punishing banks it believes have been debanking conservatives.
The Wall Street Journal says it has reviewed a draft executive order that would instruct banking regulators to probe banks that may have violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
Regulators would also be directed to investigate whether the financial institutions have broken antitrust and/or consumer financial protection laws.
Anonymous sources “familiar with the matter” tell the WSJ that President Donald Trump could pass the order this week.
The order, which would subject violators to fines, doesn’t name banks but reportedly alludes to an instance where Bank of America allegedly debanked a Christian organization over its religious beliefs. BofA says it shuttered the organization’s account because it doesn’t provide services to small businesses operating abroad.
BofA CEO Brian Moynihan argued in an interview with Face the Nation over the weekend that the regulators are to blame, not his bank.
“We have 70 million consumers and we’re one of the biggest small business lenders. So that’s not it. The issue they’re focused on is the regulators’ impact on this industry, and you heard Senator [Tim] Scott talk about this this week. This reputation, this after-the-fact look that you banked X, and now, after the fact, you’re going to say X didn’t turn out to be what you thought, so we look at it, we look at it based on risk.”
