Trump sues JPMorgan and CEO Dimon over alleged ‘debanking’ | Donald Trump News | USAEMALL.com

The $5bn lawsuit alleges JPMorgan abruptly closed multiple accounts in 2021 cutting off Trump & his firms from access to funds.

United States President Donald Trump has sued banking giant JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon for $5bn, accusing JPMorgan of debanking him and his businesses for political reasons after he left office in January 2021.

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in Miami-Dade County court in Florida. It alleges that JPMorgan abruptly closed multiple accounts in February 2021 with just 60 days’ notice and no explanation. By doing so, Trump claims JPMorgan cut the president and his businesses off from millions of dollars, disrupted their operations and forced Trump and the businesses to urgently open bank accounts elsewhere.

“JPMC debanked [Trump and his businesses] because it believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so,” the lawsuit alleges.

In a statement, JPMorgan said that it “regrets” that Trump sued them but insisted they did not close the accounts for political reasons.

“We believe the suit has no merit,” a bank spokesperson said. “JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company.”

The White House said it will refer the matter to the president’s outside counsel.

Banks have faced growing political pressure in recent years, particularly from conservatives who argue that lenders have improperly adopted “woke” political positions and, in some cases, discriminated against certain industries, such as firearms and fossil fuels.

That pressure has intensified during Trump’s second term, with the Republican president claiming in interviews that some banks refused to provide services to him and other conservatives. The banks have denied the allegation.

A US banking regulator said last month that the nine largest US banks in the past had placed restrictions on providing financial services to some controversial industries in a practice commonly described as “debanking”.

Last year, JPMorgan said it was cooperating with inquiries from government agencies and other entities regarding its policies and procedures in light of the Trump administration’s push to scrutinise banks over alleged debanking.

Reputational risk

US regulators have examined themselves to see if overly strict supervisory policies discouraged banks from providing services to certain sectors.

Trump-led officials have also moved to loosen oversight, with federal bank regulators last year saying they would stop policing banks based on so-called “reputational risk”.

Under that approach, supervisors could penalise institutions for activities that were not explicitly prohibited but could expose them to negative publicity or costly litigation.

Banks have increasingly complained that the reputational risk standard is vague and subjective, giving supervisors wide discretion to discourage firms from providing services to certain people or industries.

The industry has also argued that regulators need to update anti-money laundering rules, which can force banks to close suspicious accounts without giving customers an explanation.