The days of corporate banking overlords forcing discriminatory policies on lawful industries is, hopefully, coming to an end. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a proposed rule that would end the practice of unaccountable banking executives denying firearm industry businesses banking services to force gun control even as they take advantage of the taxpayer-funded insurance protections.
The proposed rule is about fair and equal access to financial services – or making the phrase on the dollar bill, “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private” mean what it says. It’s overdue and promises to reverse the corporate virtue signaling by nameless and faceless finance executives who foist their personal gun control views on the public by choking off essential banking services. Corporate America was attempting to do precisely what the Obama administration was chastised for doing with the illegal “Operation Choke Point” that directed financial institutions to discriminate against members of the firearm industry, and other legal industries.
The proposed rule would ensure fair access to banking services provided by national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign bank organizations, according to a press release from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The proposal would codify more than a decade of OCC guidance stating that banks should provide access to services, capital, and credit based on the risk assessment of individual customers, rather than broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers.
By Larry Keane
