Bank of America CEO Denies Alleged Debanking Trend, Says Regulators Need To Provide More Clarity To Avoid ‘Second-Guessing’

Bank of America’s chief executive says his institution isn’t debanking political rivals, it’s just being choked by regulators.

In a speech in January, US President Donald Trump accused BofA of not doing business with conservatives.

Said Trump,

“Many conservatives complained 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 Biden or what.”  

BofA CEO Brian Moynihan argues in a new interview with Face the Nation 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. People may feel those decisions are made for some other reason, but we always make it on what’s best for our company, what’s best for our client.”

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