Free Republic

JPMorgan Chase admitted to pressuring the financial software company Intuit into preventing gun sellers from using the company’s payment processing services, according to a letter Sen. Ted Cruz sent Monday after looking into the policy. Bank of America, meanwhile, denied pressuring Intuit into banning gun manufacturers from using its famous QuickBooks software. “Woke big banks are increasingly weaponizing their power to cut off law-abiding businesses from accessing banking services,” Cruz, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal in an email statement Monday. [snip] Intuit, the financial software company best known for producing QuickBooks, had adopted an acceptable use policy previously listing “guns...

A group of academics have conducted a study that found that during the fastest pace of Fed interest rate hikes in 40 years, the majority of U.S. banks failed to hedge their interest rate risk. The report’s findings include the following: “Over three quarters of all reporting banks report no material use of interest rate swaps.” “Only 6% of aggregate assets in the U.S. banking system are hedged by interest rate swaps.” “Banks with the most fragile funding – i.e., those with highest uninsured leverage — sold or reduced their hedges during the monetary tightening. This allowed them to record...

What a mess Biden and his Progressive backers have made. And we are forced to suffer the consequeinces of his policies. Or follies! Money-market funds saw inflows for the 7th week of the last 8 with a $42BN jump (the most in 2 months) to a new record high of $5.625TN… Source: Bloomberg The inflow was dominated by a $24BN increase in Institutional fund assets while Retail also saw a sizable $17.7BN increase… Source: Bloomberg And the divergence between money-market fund assets and bank deposits continues to grow… Source: Bloomberg And while we actually saw huge deposit outflows (on a...

Soviet Joe Biden, who is a believer in Soviet-style command economies where rather than rely on free market capitalism, we now have CC (Crony Communism) running the US economy. Into the ground. But in the tradition of bad Federal policiies, Soviet Joe and Energy Secretary Granholm (with help from Congress) mandate green energy transition at all costs, watch the auto industry suffer, then bail them out. Sounds a lot of like the banking crisis of 2008 where The Federal government pushed homeownership until it helped almost collapse the banking sector, then the Federal government bailed out the banks. Rinse, repeat,...

Did Bank of America discriminate against a Tennessee ministry over its Christian views or was it simply a business matter? Steve Happ, board member and founder of Indigenous Advance, a Memphis-based charity that, along with Indigenous Advance Customer Center LLC, has partnered with and served indigenous people in Uganda since 2015 to provide basic needs and share the Gospel. Despite holding deposit and credit card accounts with Bank of America since its inception, Indigenous Advance received a series of letters in April in which the bank announced it was closing the group’s accounts within 30 days. According to the nonprofit...

A Christian ministry claiming it was "debanked" by Bank of America filed a consumer complaint this week to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to determine whether their accounts were closed due to religious discrimination. Indigenous Advanced Ministries – a Memphis, Tennessee-based nonprofit engaged in charitable efforts for orphaned children in Uganda through various partnerships – was warned without explanation by Bank of America in April that the organization was "operating in a business type we have chosen not to service at Bank of America" and would be closed within 30 days. In May, Bank of America sent another letter stating...

Aug 15 (Reuters) - An analyst at Fitch Ratings warned that U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), could be downgraded if the agency further cuts its assessment of the operating environment for the industry, according to a report from CNBC on Tuesday. In June, Fitch lowered the score of the U.S. banking industry's "operating environment" to AA- from AA, citing pressure on the country's credit rating, gaps in regulatory framework and uncertainty about the future trajectory of interest rate hikes. Another one-notch downgrade, to A+ from AA-, would force Fitch to reevaluate ratings on each of the more than 70...

Rating company downgrades 10 lenders, citing dimmer outlook U.S. Bancorp, BNY Mellon among six firms facing potential cuts Not surprising given that Bidenomics is nothing more than giving big bucks to big corporations, including banks. Regional/small banks? Not so much. US bank stocks declined after Moody’s Investors Service lowered its ratings for 10 small and midsize lenders and said it may downgrade major firms including U.S. Bancorp, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., State Street Corp., and Truist Financial Corp. Higher funding costs, potential regulatory capital weaknesses and rising risks tied to commercial real estate are among strains prompting the...

JPMorgan Chase is back to debanking. Once again, it’s not providing any explanations. And once again it’s targeting people who dare to question the Left Government/Woke Business conspiracy against liberty. At about the same time, it appears, Chase debanked, without warning, Drs. Syed Haider and Joseph Mercola. Wait, no. Not just them, but also Dr. Mercola’s employees – and his and their families. All without explanation. These debankings don’t come without context. You may recall that last fall Chase debanked Senator, Ambassador and Governor (so, you know, pretty well respected) Brownback’s religious liberty organization, after having debanked General Flynn and...

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday said he had asked CIA Director William Burns to become a member of his cabinet, elevating one of his closest advisers on national security and foreign policy. . .... He "has made a significant contribution to national security decision-making, especially with regard to Russia and China" Glaser said.

The Federal Reserve is about to launch its new FedNow Service, allowing banks to transfer money instantly. But what many describe as just back-end plumbing for real-time payments could be a slippery slope to an "evil" central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to Rich Checkan, President and Co-Founder of Assets Strategies International. "I'm a big fan of FedNow. But I don't like that it's a slippery slope that leads to the evil of CBDC," Checkan told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News. "This is not happening tomorrow, but the cornerstone is being laid, and now is the...

The Federal Reserve Thursday officially launched its long-awaited instant payment service FedNow, which allows consumers and businesses to send and receive money in seconds. The system lets Americans pay for groceries instantly, businesses pay their suppliers, or people pay each other. It will be available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, with full access to funds immediately. FedNow isn’t offered directly to individuals and businesses, but it will serve as the basis of infrastructure for instant payments by linking banks. Transactions occur between bank accounts and enable funds to be transferred from a sender’s bank account to...

@RepThomasMassie FBI Director Wray admits the government has been working in conjunction with financial institutions like Bank of America to mine personal data such as gun purchase records for law abiding citizens, with no warrants or subpoenas involved.

Is it a line? Or, is it an extremely small-font message?

On Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took Bank of America to task for a list of illegal actions that undermine customer trust. [Snip] Bank of America agreed to pay a total of $150 million in fines and reimburse customers $100 million. [Snip] “Bank of America is a repeat offender. [Snip] Double-dipping: The bank had a previous policy of charging a $35 fee once — and then repeatedly for the same transaction — when a customer didn't have enough money in the account to cover the bill. If the company or person who was owed the money tried to resubmit...

ANZ and NAB have announced they were no longer permitting cash withdrawals over the counter at some of their outlets as more banking is done online than with cash. The move comes after Queensland woman Taryn Comptyn was unable to withdraw cash from her local bank branch and ended up closing her account in a now-viral TikTok clip. 'They really did emphasise the need to call ahead if you're going to take out significant amounts of money,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'If you're taking out amounts that are over $10,000, it's worth calling ahead to make sure that they...

It is 11:40 on a Thursday morning when I decide to go to my bank. I will deposit a check which I received as a result of a real estate sale. I also want to withdraw money which I deposited long ago, from the same account because I have some purchases in mind that I would prefer to make in cash; nothing illicit, illegal, or out of the ordinary. Before the Noon Rush When the bank line dwindles to one, me, I'm in front of a teller who cheerfully accepts my requests. Great, I've avoided the noon rush hour, as...

The Politicization of Banking and the End of FreedomA major leader of the Brexit movement, Nigel Farage, has just had his decades-old bank accounts closed, allegedly for “commercial” reasons, while seven additional banks have apparently refused to have him as a customer. Until we have independent evidence of what is really going on with Farage’s accounts, we cannot definitively rule out the possibility that the bank has closed his accounts for legitimate commercial reasons. But even if this particular account closure had nothing to do with political prejudice, there is no denying that the past couple of years have produced...

A parents’ organisation was reportedly prevented from opening an account with Metro Bank over opposition to allowing children to undergo life-altering transgender medical procedures, in the latest revelation of British banks banning customers for their political views. Following Brexit leader Nigel Farage revealing nine banks have refused him accounts, a slew of people, mostly holding right-wing or conservative-leaning beliefs have revealed they have faced similar Chinese communist-style debanking in Britain. According to a report from The Telegraph, the transgenderism-critical parents group Our Duty — which represents over 2,000 parents who are concerned about children being encouraged into medically transitioning their...

An Anglican vicar has slammed Yorkshire Building Society for closing his account after he accused them of promoting gender ideology. Rev Richard Fothergill, a longstanding customer with the building society, wrote to them in June to complain about their public messaging during Pride month. The 62-year-old says within four days, he received a reply telling him his internet savings account would be closed, The Times reports. Rev Fothergill, of Windermere, Cumbria, has since accused the banking giant of 'bullying' and said: 'I wasn't even aware that our relationship had a problem. They are a financial house – they are not...