JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon has refuted claims that the bank debanks clients based on their religious or political beliefs, emphasizing his long-standing efforts to reform debanking regulations. In a conversation on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Dimon explained that JPMorgan has discontinued services for a wide range of clients, but political affiliations were never a consideration.
Devin Nunes, chair of the President's intelligence advisory board and CEO of Trump Media, has accused JPMorgan of debanking the company and mentioned that it was among over 400 Trump-associated individuals and entities whose banking records were subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith for an investigation. Similarly, Jack Mallers, CEO of the Bitcoin Lightning Network payments company Strike, claimed that JPMorgan closed his personal accounts without explanation, raising concerns about a potential Operation Chokepoint 2.0. Houston Morgan from ShapeShift, a non-custodial crypto trading platform, shared a similar experience in November.
Dimon insists that the bank does not debank individuals based on political affiliations. He stated, "People have to grow up here, OK, and stop making up things and stuff like that. I can’t talk about an individual account. We do not debank people for religious or political affiliations. We do debank them. They have religious or political affiliations. We debank people who are Democrats. We debank people who are Republicans. We have debanked different religious folks. Never was that for that reason."
He advocates for changing debanking rules, especially considering the challenges faced by crypto firms in maintaining banking services. Dimon expressed support for efforts by the Trump administration to address debanking issues, highlighting his own 15-year campaign to modify these rules. He criticized the current debanking practices, describing them as "really customer unfriendly," often driven by suspicion or negative media coverage.
In August, President Donald Trump signed an executive order urging banking regulators to examine debanking claims from the crypto industry and conservative groups. Dimon mentioned that while banks must comply with subpoenas, JPMorgan has suggested measures to reduce unnecessary reporting and debanking occurrences. He remarked, "We don’t give information to the government just because they ask. We’re subpoenaed. We are required by court to give it to the government." Dimon acknowledged the frustration banks face with government actions and called for a more constructive approach to addressing these issues.
Dimon also noted that both political parties have pressured banks, stating, "Democratic and Republican governments have come after us both; let’s not act like this is just one side doing this. This has been going on for a long time. And we should stop militarizing the government that kind of way."