JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Explains Why ‘Debanking’ Happens Amid Political Backlash

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JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon acknowledged the existence of “debanking” but disagreed with some critics about the reasons behind it.

The issue gained attention this week when President Donald Trump confronted Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, regarding the closure of accounts belonging to certain political or business customers.

During a virtual Q&A session, Trump told Moynihan, “I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives.” He appeared to include Dimon in his criticism, stating, “I don’t know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what, but you and Jamie and everybody else, I hope you open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong.”

Moynihan did not respond directly to Trump’s comments, but Dimon later offered a defense of debanking in a podcast interview with JPMorgan Chase published earlier this week. According to Dimon, the reason for “debanking” is not political, but rather due to regulatory pressures from Washington, D.C.

“We have not debanked anyone because of political or religious relationships, period,” Dimon stated. He argued that U.S. regulations such as the Bank Secrecy Act pressure banks to avoid doing business with high-risk customers, and clearer regulations are needed on this matter.

“We are responsible in the law to fight sex trafficking, money laundering, tax avoidance,” Dimon explained, adding that regulators “put a lot of pressure on us” to determine what constitutes “high risk.”

“If we don’t debank someone and something goes wrong, it could be hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. So a lot of banks are kind of guessing, like, ‘we should get rid of these people’?” Dimon added. He further mentioned that banks are not allowed to disclose the reasons for debanking customers.

The issue of debanking has resurfaced during the 2024 presidential campaign, gaining significant attention after Trump’s election victory. Silicon Valley billionaire and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen discussed the issue on Joe Rogan’s podcast, claiming that the Biden administration had instructed regulators to pressure banks into debanking its political opponents, including closing accounts held by conservatives and startups in sectors like crypto and AI.

Andreessen referred to this as “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” referencing the Obama-era initiative aimed at rooting out bank accounts linked to consumer fraud, which also faced conservative backlash.

In response, Dimon reached out to Andreessen, as he mentioned in the Chase podcast interview. “We’ve been complaining about this for years. We need to fix it, but it wasn’t for all the things that Joe Rogan and Mark Andreessen spoke about,” Dimon clarified.

With Trump’s presidency in place, momentum in Washington to address debanking is expected to intensify. A recent executive order issued by Trump emphasized “fair and open access to banking services” for the digital assets industry and called for a review of regulations affecting this sector.

On Friday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Republican Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), announced plans to investigate improper debanking practices. The committee has reached out to figures like Andreessen and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to gather information.

Andreessen, who previously discussed the issue on Rogan’s podcast, claimed that “the President’s own wife and son were debanked.” The House committee even included an excerpt from First Lady Melania Trump’s memoir, detailing her own experience with debanking.

According to the excerpt, “I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my long-time bank decided to terminate my account and deny my son [Barron Trump] the opportunity to open a new one. This decision appeared to be rooted in political discrimination.”

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