Banks’ Credibility Overdrawn as Political Scandals Rage

After the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP) helped spread the word about and mounted a petition campaign against a critical race theory (CRT) training programs being pushed at Bank of America, the woke financial institution tried to push back.

The response was laughable. And it has all the appearances of being an outright lie. And it’s not the only financial giant that is eating crow right now.

In a previous Townhall commentary, FEP Director Scott Shepard exposed how many major corporations – including Bank of America – were foisting CRT propaganda on their staffs. Scott wrote that employees at Bank of America were “encouraged” via email to go to a sponsored training session where people were “instructed to ‘decolonize [their] mind[s]’ and ‘cede power to people of color.’” He called it “red-hot racism.”

In response to the outcry that FEP and others generated against CRT training, Bank of America responded to those who complained directly to them. In an email, representatives claimed the program was “voluntary,” “not encourage[d]” and not developed by the bank.

So everything’s cool, right? Wrong.

In a follow-up Townhall commentary, Scott called it a “dissembling falsehood.” By making CRT training available to Bank of America employees, it’s essentially an extension of the institution and “does not let the bank off the hook.” Likewise, advertising the training through official channels implies that employees should participate. As for the denial of encouraging participation, Scott noted:

We have been told by reliable sources that this is false. And given that every other line of the response is false, either by assertion or omission, we have no doubt that our sources are telling the truth.

And it’s not just Bank of America getting caught practicing politics instead of counting pennies. Chase also has some explaining to do.

Despite assurances to FEP by JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon that the company does not de-bank people because of their politics, they recently issued an apology to former Trump advisor and retired general Michael Flynn for cancelling credit cards issued to the Flynn family. The reason stated in the cancellation letter was the “possible reputational risk to our company.” Chase now calls that letter “an error.” Scott pointed out:

The initial letter closing the accounts said that the decision had been made “[a]fter careful consideration.” Given that careful consideration, Chase’s action requires a careful and detailed explanation from the bank. What were you thinking? What sort of a review are you now undertaking? What procedures are you adopting to make sure that this sort of social-credit de-banking doesn’t happen again, and doesn’t happen to those whose politics Chase’s executives find distasteful, but who have less earned celebrity than General Flynn?

Assessing the situation, Scott wrote:

The legislation, regulation and protections that have given us the too-big-to-fail banks are impossibly broken and must be replaced. Aside from their appalling economic consequences, they have created arrogant, mendacious and lawless institutions run by people who have earned billions while taxpayers protected them from their own failures.

“The lessons of this big-bank duplicity are clear,” Scott declared. “[T]he whole system must be reformed, root and branch.”

To read all of Scott’s commentary – “Bank of America, Chase Follow Discrimination With Coverup” – click here. And click here to sign FEP’s petition against critical race theory training at Bank of America.