By: Lathan Watts – nationalreview.com – March 14, 2025

Chase’s decision to drop discrimination based on politics and religion is good for business.

After a series of negotiations with attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, JPMorgan Chase has agreed to adopt language in its code of conduct that protects against political and religious de-banking. The changes mark a crucial step forward at the nation’s largest bank, which has come under heightened attention for several instances of apparent viewpoint-based cancellations in recent years.

The policy changes, which Chase has agreed to adopt and post publicly by late July, safeguard customers, employees, suppliers, and contractors from religious and political discrimination. In particular, the changes clarify Chase’s non-discrimination language, which now specifies the company will “not tolerate discrimination” “based on . . . religion, religious affiliation, or religious views . . . political opinions, speech, or affiliations.”

Though Chase leaders, including CEO Jamie Dimon, have maintained that the bank has never canceled accounts or punished accountholders for their political or religious views, evidence points to a troubling track record.

In 2022, Chase canceled the account of former U.S. Ambassador Sam Brownback’s National Committee for Religious Freedom without explanation. The cancellation and Chase’s two denials of payment processing services to conservative groups Defense of Liberty and Arkansas Family Council in 2021 are part of a trend of apparent politicized de-banking by Chase and other major banks like Bank of America. So, it would seem the Reagan-era philosophy of “trust but verify” has found another useful application.

In 2023, 19 state attorneys general and 14 state financial officers sent letters calling on Chase to provide transparency on the cancellations, while financial adviser David Bahnsen filed a shareholder resolution urging Chase to do the same. By the end of 2023, the bank dropped its payment processor WePay’s “social risk” policy that included subjective terms like “hate” and “intolerance” and that allowed bank employees to cancel or punish customers based on their viewpoints.

While collaborating with Chase to address the issue, ADF attorneys worked with Tennessee lawmakers last year to adopt a first-of-its-kind law prohibiting viewpoint-based de-banking. At least four other states are considering similar legislation.

Many more states should follow Tennessee’s lead, as should the U.S. Congress. Chase is to be commended for changing course to restore ideological freedom to the free market, but if major financial institutions like Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and others don’t follow, American consumers will need legal protection and recourse. Banks that are “too big to fail” are certainly too big to discriminate.

Notably, the changes in policy at Chase came after a shareholder proposal brought by Bowyer Research. Bowyer Research is part of a coalition of values-aligned investors, financial advisers, corporate engagement experts, and state financial officers, and it has filed 70 similar resolutions this year across a broad spectrum of major corporations. Chase agreed to the changes in exchange for pulling back the proposal from the agenda for the company’s annual meeting of stockholders this May.

If this type of shareholder accountability represents an emerging trend in corporate America, it is an encouraging one. When corporations listen to shareholders demanding a return to the legitimate business priorities of healthy bottom lines and a robust return on investment instead of divisive political agendas and quasi-social engineering, the result is a truly free marketplace.

The free-market economy combined with representative democracy has made our republic the envy of the world and an exception to the general rule of history. Our founders took great pains to limit the concentration of power in government. The modern concentration of power in the private sector also demands vigilant scrutiny.

We, the people, are the first guardians of our political and financial freedom. The recent developments at Chase are proof that, whether it is financial or political, an engaged citizenry can produce a rising tide of freedom to lift all boats. Americans are banking on it.

LATHAN WATTS is the vice president of public affairs of Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal). He served for three years as the Dallas coordinator for National Review Institute’s Burke to Buckley Fellowship and earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Mississippi.

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Source: Debanking: Chase Bank Drops Discrimination Based on Politics and Religion | National Review