We’ve chronicled numerous times on TTAG how big banking institutions have debanked companies involved with guns and other conservative leaning businesses. And more recently, we reported that things seemed to be looking up concerning the debanking issue.
Now, however, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry trade association, is calling out the head of JPMorgan Chase with what the group says is recent lies about the company’s promises to stop firearm-related businesses.
On December 7, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that his bank doesn’t “debank” or engage in political discrimination against account holders.
“People have to grow up here, OK, and stop making up things and stuff like that,” Dimon said during the program. “I can’t talk about an individual account. We do not … debank people for religious or political affiliations.”
In a December 9 news article on the matter, Larry Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel, called Dimon out for his assertion.
“That claim is simply untrue,” Keane wrote. “And NSSF has the receipts.”
On the Fox program, Dimon tried to clarify his comments, but only dug himself into a deeper hole.
“We debank people who are Democrats,” he said. “We debank people who are Republicans. We have debanked different religious folks. Never was that for that reason.”
“But that’s not true,” Keane wrote. “And you don’t have to take my word for it. You can take Dimon’s own words for it.”
As Keane explained in the article, Dimon testified under oath in a 2021 congressional hearing that JPMorgan Chase would not lend to manufacturers of Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs). “We do not finance the manufacture of military-style weapons for civilian use,” Dimon said at the time.
Then, in 2023, JPMorgan Chase was caught using its financial might to pressure the financial software company Intuit into preventing firearm businesses from using their payment services. The revelation came to light after several businesses told U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that Intuit had abandoned them, only to have Intuit tell the senator it had made the move after JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America told it to prohibit gun manufacturers and sellers from using Intuit’s QuickBooks software.
Dimon telling such a lie on national television after admitting to debanking gun industry businesses and other conservatives is something unacceptable, according to the NSSF.
“Dimon needs to do better,” Keane wrote. “A banking CEO can’t expect to go on television and claim his corporate bank doesn’t discriminate when there’s so much evidence it does, and he has testified under oath to that fact.”
Ultimately, NSSF is demanding that Dimon admit the truth about debanking gun-related companies, then begin working to ensure his bank doesn’t do so in the future.
“NSSF calls upon Dimon to publicly renounce his bank’s antigun policy that he testified to under oath before Congress,” Keane concluded. “Talk is cheap, Mr. Dimon. Time to walk the talk.”
