Citibank this week dropped a policy it implemented in 2018 restricting the Second Amendment rights of clients.
While claiming it “has always been fully committed to treating all current and potential clients fairly,” it said concerns were raised “regarding ‘fair access’ to banking services.” Six years later, under a second Trump administration, it’s now changing its policy to comply with “regulatory developments, recent Executive Orders and federal legislation that impact this area,” it announced.
This includes updating its employee Code of Conduct and customer-facing Global Financial Access Policy “to clearly state that we do not discriminate on the basis of political affiliation in the same way we are clear that we do not discriminate on the basis of other traits such as race and religion. This will codify what we’ve long practiced, and we will continue to conduct trainings to ensure compliance.”
It also said it will “no longer have a specific policy as it relates to firearms. Our U.S. Commercial Firearms Policy was implemented in 2018 and pertained to sale of firearms by our retail clients and partners. The policy was intended to promote the adoption of best sales practices as prudent risk management and didn’t address the manufacturing of firearms.”
In March 2018, Citibank announced a company-wide policy impacting small businesses, commercial and institutional clients, and credit card partners nationwide, requiring them to not sell firearms unless they met the bank’s conditions, and prohibiting them from selling bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. One month later, Bank of America announced it was no longer financing companies that manufacture “military-style firearms for civilian use.”
This led to Louisiana officials taking action in response. U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, petitioned the General Services Administration to cancel Citigroup’s federal contract. The State Bond Commission made national headlines by voting to disqualify the two banks as underwriters for a $600 million road financing plan, The Center Square reported.
Fast forward to 2025, while Citi’s announcement “is a step in the right direction, its vile discrimination against millions of American consumers should’ve never occurred in the first place,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, told The Center Square.
“Along with other woke financial giants like Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Chase, CitiBank deliberately debanked Americans for holding positions that dared to run counter to the prevailing progressive orthodoxy of the moment. These firms could’ve chosen to defend the First Amendment and the right of all citizens to express themselves freely; instead, they chose cowardice and malice. No individual or organization should be denied access to financial resources because of their political beliefs or affiliations. Such censorship is un-American and poses grave harm to our country’s economic wellbeing. Going forward, Consumers’ Research will be monitoring Citi’s promised reforms closely.”
Last year, 15 state attorneys general alleged Bank of America was debanking customers based on their political or religious beliefs, The Center Square reported. This included then former President Donald Trump’s attorney, John Eastman, The Daily Caller reported.
In a recent panel discussion on debanking, Hild argued financial institutions “made a series of cowardly decisions that got them into the position that they’re in now. To the extent they are under the thumb of the regulators.”
Over the last several years, Congress held hearings to investigate debanking and other policies. In a hearing last year, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco cited examples of “the most powerful corporations the world has ever known” censoring Americans.
An ADF analysis also found that 70% of banks were targeting clients based on conservative religious beliefs, The Center Square reported.
Citibank isn’t the only institution changing its policies this year.
Despite JP Morgan Chase previously claiming its didn’t debank customers based on political or religious views, in March it announced it was changing its Code of Conduct to prevent debanking for religious or political reasons, The Center Square reported.
Under the Biden administration, financial institutions also implemented so-called Environmental Social Governance (ESG) policies targeting the oil and natural gas industry. Roughly 60 companies were investigated by Congress for allegedly colluding as a “woke ESG cartel” to “impose radical environmental, social, and governance goals on American companies,” The Center Square reported.
Not soon after President Donald Trump was elected, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Blackrock left a United Nations-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), which promotes ESG policies, The Center Square reported.
