Capito, Cramer, Colleagues Reintroduce Fair Access to Banking Act

Press Release

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) joined 36 of her Republican colleagues in reintroducing the Fair Access to Banking Act, legislation led by Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) that would bar financial institutions from refusing or limiting services to constitutionally-protected industries.

"When banks and financial service providers pick and choose which industries they'll work with based purely on politics, it hurts the hardworking men and women across our country who are employed by those industries," Senator Capito said. "This legislation would ensure employers and workers in the energy or firearms manufacturing sectors are protected from political activism by financial institutions. I'm proud to join my colleagues in introducing a commonsense bill that provides the protection and access they deserve."

The purpose of the Fair Access to Banking Act is to protect fair access to financial services and to ensure banks operate in a safe and sound manner, basing their judgements and decisions on impartial, individualized risk-based analysis developed through empirical data and evaluated under quantifiable standards.

If enacted, this bill would:

Penalize banks and credit unions with over $10 billion in total consolidated assets, or their subsidiaries, if they refuse to do business with any legally-compliant person who meets the criteria described above;
Prevent payment card networks from discriminating against any qualified and legally-compliant person because of political or reputational considerations;
Codify the core requirements found in the Trump administration's Fair Access Final Rule;
Require qualified banks to provide written justification for why they are denying a person financial services; and
Punish providers who fail to comply with the law by disqualifying them from using discount window lending programs, terminating their status as an insured depository institution or insured credit union, or imposing a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation.

This legislation is in response to United States banks and financial institutions increasingly using their economic standing to categorically discriminate against legal industries. For example, in 2018, Citigroup instituted a policy to withhold project-related financing for coal plants; in 2020, five of the country's largest banks announced they would not provide loans or credit to support oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite explicit congressional authorization. Such exclusionary practices extend to industries protected by the Second Amendment too, with Capital One, among other banks, including "ammunitions, firearms, or firearm parts" in the prohibited payments section of its corporate policy manual, and payment services like Apple Pay and PayPal denying their services for transactions involving firearms or ammunition.

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