A Christian ministry in Tennessee has accused Bank of America of closing its accounts for ideological reasons.
Indigenous Advance Ministries (IAM), a Memphis-based organization, “advances Christian ministries in Uganda,” founder Steve Happ told The Epoch Times. “We feed orphans and widows and prisoners, and we lift the poor.”
“I still don’t know why they closed my accounts,” he said. “I asked many times, and they would not say other than they were no longer going to support a business of this type.”
Bank of America has responded that closing IAM’s accounts wasn’t an issue of its beliefs but rather that some of its activities conflicted with the bank’s policies.
“Religious beliefs are not a factor in any account-closing decision,” he said. “Our U.S. division that serves small businesses doesn’t offer banking services to organizations that provide debt collection services for a variety of risk-related considerations and doesn’t serve small businesses operating outside the United States.”
The April 24 letter from Bank of America to IAM stated: “Upon review of your account(s), we have determined you’re operating in a business type we have chosen not to service at Bank of America. As a result, we’ve made the decision to close your account.”
“I immediately called the number on the letter, and all they would do was read the one line on the letter,” Mr. Happ said. “I asked them, ‘What type of business do you think we are?’ and they said, ‘I’m sorry I cannot discuss it further with you.’”
Mr. Happ said, “We started a project to train Ugandans on business principles and give them some business experience ... we’re actually in the process right now of building and opening a training facility to train in carpentry, and electrical, and plumbing; and we have distributed hundreds and hundreds of Bibles to prisoners.”
“As an experiment, we opened a back-office call center, and we worked with that under the Ministry for a number of months, and it did quite well,” he said. “We decided we did not want to continue a business under the Ministry, so we separated it out as a completely different company.”
Regarding debt collection, he said, “all we’re doing is sending emails out to remind customers they have an invoice.”
“This is how de-banking works: The bank closes the accounts, doesn’t give a clear reason, and cites some kind of risk toleration policy for the denial, under circumstances that look very suspiciously like it was because of your religious or political views,” Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), told The Epoch Times. “They are obviously trying to come up with reasons after the fact to try to explain what they did.”
ADF is representing IAM in this matter and has filed a consumer complaint that “the bank illegally discriminated against the charity because of its religious views.”
“It’s the kind of wagon circling we see every time,” Mr. Tedesco said. “JPMorgan Chase did the same thing when they were called to account for some of their debanking last year.”
“In the past two years, JPMorgan Chase has denied payments or canceled accounts associated with people and organizations who hold mainstream American values such as former Ambassador Sam Brownback, the Arkansas Family Council, Defense of Liberty, and former general Michael Flynn Jr. Also, in 2022, PayPal disabled the account of a group called the Free Speech Union without explanation. PayPal eventually cited its ‘acceptable use policy,’ which allows the company to take action against account holders whose views they find objectionable.”
“They also closed Steve’s church’s account as part of this, so it wasn’t just the Indigenous Advance Ministry,” Mr. Tedesco said. “They also canceled their church account, which is just a church in Tennessee that, like any other church, gives to religious missions overseas.”
The ministry opened its accounts at Bank of America in 2015, and Mr. Happ said he has had personal accounts at Bank of America for nearly three decades. After having his accounts closed, Mr. Happ said he chose to bank with a local bank in Memphis, rather than one of the “big four” American banks.
“I decided I wouldn’t go that route again.”
