Sometimes life is about just showing up. It’s been that simple in some serious “de-banking” issues involving JPMorgan Chase, one of the nation’s largest financial institutions. De-banking is the practice of banks closing or restricting the accounts of individuals or organizations perceived to pose a financial, legal, regulatory or reputational risk to the bank. But determining which accounts are "risky" can be quite a subjective call by bank officials.
JPMorgan in 2022 closed the account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, a nonprofit headed by former Kansas governor and senator Sam Brownback, the ambassador at-large for international religious freedom under Donald Trump. It was a decision that put Chase’s practices on the radar for many Christians and social conservatives.
In November 2023, Sinai Holdings, a Florida business, sued JPMorgan claiming that it wrongfully canceled transactions, closed accounts, and told the firm’s customers that transfers couldn’t be completed because of ongoing federal sanctions, American Banker reported.
“They picked on the wrong guy when they de-banked Sam Brownback,” Jerry Bowyer, of Bowyer Research, said on Washington Watch Thursday. Brownback’s political connections and likability backfired on JPMorgan, Bowyer told show host Jody Hice.
“He’s a very mainstream American person, very likeable with a real George Bailey quality to him. So, when his bank account was canceled with no good reason given, that was just too much. It was just a terrible, terrible mistake,” he said.
Clearly, Brownback knew people and had connections – but "regular Joes" with other socially conservative nonprofits were also targeted by Chase or its companies.
That day the accounts were shut down
It was “WePay,” an online payment service provider, that cancelled its relationship with the Arkansas-based Family Council with no warning. David Cox, the Council's assistant director, remembers it well.
“On July 7, 2021, at 10:29 a.m. I received an email from WePay saying, ‘Unfortunately, we can no longer support your business. Best of luck to you. We're closing your account.’ Very terse email. Sixty seconds later, at 10 30 a.m., we were no longer able to accept credit card donations online. We didn't get any explanation about what happened,” he told Hice.
Eventually the Family Council learned that WePay’s “safety team” had designated their accounts as high risk. “We don't know what prompted that designation. We never got an explanation,” Cox shared.
Fortunately, the Arkansas group was able to quickly pivot and began doing business with a company of like-minded values. But Cox reviewed the Council's customer service agreement with WePay.
“You know, the agreement that we all just checked the box that says 'Agree'? I reviewed it and I found that buried in that agreement was fine print that said they could cancel our account for any reason or no reason at all, and that they could do it with virtually no notice,” he explained.
Bowyer was involved in the early stages of pushback against JPMorgan, and things didn’t go well. A client put forth a proposal to the board that the company review and modify its practices to prevent social risk, but the proposal failed.
Christians need to pay attention
Bowyer realized a need to raise awareness among Christians doing business with JPMorgan, pointing out they didn’t know what was going on and weren’t engaged at board meetings.
“There were people who were fighting this fight with the companies and putting proposals on the ballots, and Christians don't know. So, Christians who own stock in JPMorgan Chase didn't vote because they didn't even know that voting was going on,” Bowyer said.
Many votes were handled by “proxy companies” authorized to act for absent shareholders … but not acting in the interests of conservatives.
“These proxy advisory services or these asset managers like BlackRock are voting with our money, and they're voting against our values and against our interests, including on de-banking proposals,” Bowyer elaborated.
Before going straight to litigation, however, Bowyer and others engaged JPMorgan directly. “We had a lot of conversations with JPMorgan Chase that really lasted more than a year. I’m not going to say everything's perfect, but they were very productive,” he said.
Concessions were made. JPMorgan added viewpoint discrimination protection to its company policies. They dropped the social risk category from WePay.
“Social risk is completely subjective. What’s social risky in Manhattan is not risky in Pittsburgh, where I’m from. Social risk is very much in the eye of the beholder,” Bowyer said.
When outrage has a plan
The corporate researcher argued that improved conditions with JPMorgan should encourage Christians to monitor the companies they’re supporting and hold them accountable. But he also acknowledged that instead of engaging, believers too often complain about censorship, de-banking, etc. In other words, they talk about companies rather than to companies, Bowyer said.
“Then they’re surprised when banks go bad,” he added.
In the case of JPMorgan, however, the combined forces of backlash from conservative media and respectful conversations made a difference, Bowyer explained.
“I'm a Christian – and I believe that every institution to which we do not apply salt is constantly in a state of rot,” he said. “We just reasoned with [JPMorgan], and they really changed some policies. Now we have ongoing, constructive conversations.
“This outrage turned to action – and wasn’t just outrage stuck in outrage stage.”
