Conservative Coalition Sounds the Alarm
A powerful coalition of conservative groups, including Americans for Tax Reform and Citizen Outreach, is warning about a growing threat to Americans’ financial freedom: government bureaucrats pressuring banks to close customer accounts without warning or explanation.
In a letter sent to Congress, the coalition exposed how regulators are using “politicized risk assessments” to force banks to cut off certain customers and industries.
The result? A system where your bank account could be closed simply because a bureaucrat decides your business is too “risky.”
The Numbers Tell the Story
According to the letter sent to the Senate Banking Committee, banks filed 4.6 million suspicious activity reports (SARs) in 2023. Less than 0.3% of these reports “contributed to an active FBI or IRS investigation.” Even more striking, banks filed over 170 million currency transaction reports between 2014 and 2023, but “only 5% were ever accessed by law enforcement.”
The letter explains that banks are “fined for not being sufficiently aggressive in debanking criminals that law enforcement did not catch despite the bank filing a SAR, forcing banks to err on the side of debanking when they are unsure if a crime has been committed.”
From Crypto to Guns: A Pattern of Targeting
This isn’t just theoretical. The coalition points to concrete examples:
“A recent Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the Biden Administration engaged in a deliberate effort to pressure financial institutions to stop engaging in crypto activities.”
This follows the pattern of:
“Operation Choke Point under the Obama Administration, in which regulators targeted lawful industries such as firearms dealers and payday lenders under the guise of risk management.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) even maintained a list of “high-risk” industries, “including companies responsible for firearm and ammunition sales, coin dealers, and online gambling.”
While the FDIC eventually amended this list, the letter notes that “the damage to public trust remains.”
Banks Forced to Become Surveillance Tools
The consequences are severe:
“entire industries are shut out of the financial system, and individuals are left without recourse.”
Banks have essentially been forced to become:
“de facto law enforcement agencies without knowing the full story of any of the enforcement actions they are pressured to take.”
What makes this especially troubling is that banks are legally prohibited from telling customers when they’ve filed a suspicious activity report. This means many Americans never know why their accounts were closed or how to defend themselves against false suspicions.
The coalition warns this practice:
“will not stop with cryptocurrency firms or firearms dealers—it will expand to any industry or individual who falls out of favor with those in power.”
The Call to Action
The letter’s signatories are calling for two essential changes:
1. Congress must “act to reign in rogue regulators and prevent government bureaucrats from debanking disfavored individuals and groups.”
2. Treasury must implement the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, which the letter says “has gone nowhere under the Biden Administration.” This law could help banks “focus on identifying criminals, rather than filing reports for the sake of filing reports.”
What’s at Stake
The stakes are high. As the letter concludes:
“Weaponizing financial regulation to punish disfavored individuals and industries is a dangerous abuse of power that threatens economic freedom.”
The coalition urges Congress to:
“prevent further erosion of financial access and ensure that Americans can participate in the economy without fear of ideological discrimination.”
The message is clear: Without immediate action, any American could find themselves cut off from the banking system simply for engaging in legal activities that bureaucrats don’t like. The time to stop this overreach is now, before it spreads even further into every corner of American commerce and life.
Read the full letter here: Coalition Urges Committee to Address Regulatory Debanking
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
