Jamie Dimon and the crypto world agree that “banking discount” needs to be fixed – but for different reasons
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, agrees that “debanking” is taking place. He disagrees with some critics about the reasons for this.
The allegation that major banks have closed accounts held by some political or business clients gained new clarity this week when President Donald Trump confronted Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives,” Trump told Moynihan during a virtual question-and-answer session. The president also appeared to include Damon in his confrontation.
Trump added: “I don’t know if the regulators forced this because of Biden or what, but you and Jimmy and everyone else, I hope you open your banks to the governors because what you’re doing is wrong.”
Moynihan did not respond to Trump’s criticism at that moment, but Dimon offered his defense of breaking up the banks Chase podcast interview Posted earlier last week.
He said the reason is not politics. It concerns regulations imposed on banks by regulators in Washington, DC
He said: “We did not remove anyone from their accounts because of political or religious ties.”
What Dimon said instead is that US rules such as the Bank Secrecy Act discourage banks from dealing with clients deemed high-risk – and that clearer regulation is needed on this front.
“We are responsible by law to combat sex trafficking, money laundering, and tax evasion,” Dimon said, and regulators “put a lot of pressure on us” and “tell us what the high risks are.”
“If we don’t take someone out of our bank accounts and something goes wrong, it could be hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. So a lot of banks are kind of speculative, like, ‘Should we get rid of these people?'”
He added: “We are not allowed to tell you why we deprived you of the bank.”
The issue of bank breakups came up frequently during the 2024 presidential campaign and had perhaps its most notable airing in the weeks after Trump’s election victory in early November when billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen appeared on Joe Rogan’s show. Podcast.
During that interview, Andreessen claimed that the Biden administration had instructed regulators to pressure banks to break up the accounts of their enemies — including closing accounts held by conservatives and startups in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and other sectors.
He referred to it as “Operation Choke Point 2.0.” (Operation Choke Point was an Obama administration-era program designed to root out bank accounts linked to consumer fraud—a program that also attracted conservative critics.)
