By Josh Kosman
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan may be a marked man in the White House and not just because his bank would not take President Trump’s money, sources said.
Trump on August 7 signed an executive order mandating banking regulators to investigate whether banks have discriminated against conservatives and certain industries.
President Trump is targeting Brian Moynihan
The President said August 5 on CNBC’s Squawk Box that BofA and JPMorgan would not accept his deposits after his first term in office. But there may be more to the story.
Trump sung the same tune Jan. 23 with Moynihan right next to him on a World Economic Forum stage.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,” the President said. “I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives, because what you’re doing is wrong.”
He was likely referring to when BofA stopped banking private prison company GEO Group, BofA insiders said.
Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash
“This is what Trump was pissed about,” a BofA source said. “Trump needs GEO.”
BofA in June 2019 was the last of the big banks to cut off future funding for private prison companies including GEO.
“They did not want to be the last bank standing,” a source with direct knowledge of the situation said.
GEO now processes more than one-third of the people ICE detains, 20,000 beds, at 21 facilities, according to GEO. The firm also owns prisons and jails.
But back in 2019 there was a big fight within the bank whether to stop doing more business with GEO after one of GEO’s other big lenders JPMorgan in March 2019 said it would no longer fund private prisons.
A GEO facility according to the company’s website
Wells Fargo was also pulling back.
BofA Vice Chair Anne Finucane argued for staying the course and was very vocal about it, a source said, causing some at the bank to panic, the source said.
There were meetings between top bank executives where what to do about lending to private prisons was fiercely debated.
Ultimately, BofA’s Global Head of ESG Andrew Plepler had the final word and BoA stopped future funding of private prisons, the BofA source said.
“The private sector is attempting to respond to public policy and government needs and demands in the absence of long standing and widely recognized reforms needed in criminal justice and immigration policies,” BofA said in a June 2019 statement to USA Today. “Lacking further legal and policy clarity, and in recognition of the concerns of our employees and stakeholders in the communities we serve, it is our intention to exit these relationships.”