19 Republican states accuse JPMorgan of closing bank accounts and discriminating against customers due to their religious or political beliefs

• 19 Republican states accused JPMorgan of closing bank accounts on political or religious grounds.
• In a letter to CEO Jamie Dimon, they say the bank asked questions about religion and politics.
• The attorneys general wanted JPMorgan to participate in a diversity survey linked to free speech.

Republican attorneys general from 19 states have accused JPMorgan Chase of closing accounts and discriminating against customers due to their political or religious beliefs, a report says.

In a letter sent to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Republicans representing 19 states said the bank had canceled major organizations’ checking accounts and had asked screening questions focused on religion and politics before reinstating them.

The attorneys general said JPMorgan “abruptly closed” the checking account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a non-profit, before a letter informing it about the decision had been delivered.

The complaint said that an employee at the bank eventually told the group that JPMorgan would restore the NCRF’s account if it provided a list of its donors, a list of the political candidates it intended to support, and details of the criteria used to determine its support and endorsements.

“The bank’s brazen attempt to condition critical services on a customer passing some unarticulated religious or political litmus test flies in the face of Chase’s antidiscrimination policies. Worse, it flies in the face of basic American values of fairness and equality,” the signatories of the letter said. 

The letter was signed by Daniel Cameron of Kentucky and Steve Marshall of Alabama, and co-signed by their counterparts in States including Florida, Georgia and Texas.

In March, treasurers from 14 Republican states also wrote to Dimon with similar claims, The Journal reported.

JPMorgan was also accused of declining a proposal to participate in a survey for the Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index, which measured a company’s respect for “freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief as a standard part of doing business,” per its website. JPMorgan received a score of 15% for the index in 2022.

Further, the letter claimed JPMorgan asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to ignore a proposal for the bank to disclose its policy for closing accounts.

A JPMorgan representative told The Journal: “We have never and would never exit a client relationship due to their political or religious affiliation.”

JPMorgan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.