I Was De-Banked by JPMorgan Chase, But I Stood My Ground and Triumphed

If you’ve ever experienced the shock of suddenly losing access to your bank account, then you can relate to the feeling of having the rug pulled out from under you, as detailed in this article.

This was my reality in 2022 when JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, unexpectedly terminated our newly established account for the National Committee for Religious Freedom.

I founded NCRF after dedicating decades to public service, including three years as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom during the first Trump administration.

The organization actively supports the constitutional right to freedom of religion, allowing all Americans to live peacefully according to their faith. Our advisory board features leaders from Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities spanning various mainstream denominations.

However, when I attempted to make a donation at a local Chase branch, I was informed that our account had been closed—without any explanation.

A week later, we received an official communication stating we were no longer customers of Chase.

Over the next year, I encountered inconsistencies as multiple Chase employees provided at least four conflicting explanations for the cancellation of our account.

This excuse-making reached its peak during the bank’s 2023 annual shareholder meeting, where CEO Jamie Dimon erroneously claimed for the first time that we had not correctly filled out our initial application.

This was the fifth and final justification provided for our account closure. What it lacked in originality, it made up for in stubbornness.

As the son of a Kansas farmer, I am no stranger to dealing with obstinacy.

By the time of that shareholder meeting, NCRF had already initiated a national campaign to highlight the stories of those who, like us, had faced cancellation or punishment by their banks, payment processors, or even insurance companies.

We discovered that most victims of debanking shared two traits: they had their finances in order and were often conservative or religious.

Additionally, we found that prior to NCRF’s brief account with Chase, the bank had already demonstrated a troubling pattern of targeting conservatives.

Donald Trump Jr. and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn Jr., both closely linked to the early Trump administration, also experienced debanking by Chase.

In these instances, the bank cited vague terms of service, including “potential reputational risk to our company,” only to reverse their decisions after facing swift public backlash.

Other banks soon followed Chase’s example.

In a notable case, Bank of America closed accounts for Christian organizations such as Timothy Two Project International and Indigenous Advance Ministries, a charity helping vulnerable widows and orphans in Uganda.

The case of Indigenous Advance was particularly outrageous, according to Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal organization that advocated for the group. In addition to closing the ministry’s account, Bank of America also shut down the account of a local supporting church.

Critics of this trend, including figures like then-candidate Donald Trump—whose wife and youngest son were also denied bank accounts—were often dismissed and ridiculed by shows like “Saturday Night Live,” which portrayed our situations as fictional jokes.

Nonetheless, representatives at Chase began to take our concerns seriously.

We achieved our first significant victory in late 2023 when Chase’s payment processing branch, WePay, quietly removed a “social risk” policy that contained subjective terms such as “hate” and “intolerance.” This policy allowed bank employees to cancel or penalize customers based on their beliefs.

A substantial change is now on the horizon for Chase: Following discussions with ADF attorneys and stakeholders, the bank has agreed to incorporate language into its corporate code of conduct aimed at protecting customers from future instances of political and religious debanking.

This marks the first instance of a major US bank taking such corrective action.

The new policy explicitly states that Chase will “not tolerate discrimination” against customers, suppliers, contractors, employees, or affiliates of Chase “based on … religion, religious affiliation, or religious views … [or] political opinions, speech or affiliations.”

For those of us who have had our financial security threatened, Chase’s new commitments signify a critical milestone in the battle against politicized debanking.

However, the fight is far from over: eradicating this discriminatory practice throughout the industry will require ongoing pressure and vigilance.

No one should have to worry that their bank may penalize them for their religious or political beliefs—and we will continue to advocate until every American is free from this concern.

Sam Brownback, chairman of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, served as the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom from 2018 to 2021.