Knife Rights applauds President Trump’s Executive Order Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans. For many years banks have discriminated against knifemakers and manufacturers. This executive order may go a long way towards preventing future de-banking efforts against our community. I urge you to read the whole EO to understand its full scope.
The EO mentions Operation Choke Point “by which Federal regulators pushed banks to minimize their involvement with individuals and companies engaged in lawful activities and industries disfavored by regulators based on factors other than individualized, objective, risk-based standards.” A number of knife companies were caught up in this operation.
Too many knifemakers have found themselves de-banked or their access to services such as credit card processing cancelled for no other reason than the bank, or some woke individual at the bank, deemed their business as disfavored because they viewed them as “evil” weapons instead of common tools. Even as weapons they are legal and protected by the Second Amendment.
The EO prohibits “…an act by a bank, savings association, credit union, or other financial services provider to directly or indirectly adversely restrict access to, or adversely modify the conditions of, accounts, loans, or other banking products or financial services of any customer or potential customer on the basis of the customer’s or potential customer’s political or religious beliefs, or on the basis of the customer’s or potential customer’s lawful business activities that the financial service provider disagrees with or disfavors for political reasons.”
How this EO affects these issues in the real world going forward remains to be seen. For example, will PayPal cease its discrimination against knifemakers? Only time will tell, but being able to cite the EO in a dispute with PayPal or in a letter from an attorney to a bank or in a lawsuit should be useful.
My post with the most pageviews ever was back at the long defunct TruthAboutKnives and was about Hogue getting debanked by Wells Fargo back under Obama. Largely thanks to an link from Instapundit.com.
According to Wikipedia:
Operation Choke Point was an initiative of the United States Department of Justice beginning in 2013[1] which investigated banks in the United States and the business they did with firearm dealers, payday lenders, and other companies that, while operating legally, were said to be at a high risk for fraud and money laundering.
This operation, disclosed in an August 2013 Wall Street Journal story,[2] was officially ended in August 2017,[3] and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) settled multiple lawsuits by promising to Congress additional training for its examiners and to cease issuing “informal” and “unwritten suggestions” to banks.
Debanking didn’t go away however, and was revitalized under Biden, this time targeting the crypto industry.
From the US House of Representatives
“Beginning in 2013, Obama’s Department of Justice enlisted bank regulators in the first iteration of Operation Choke Point. Obama’s Operation Choke Point targeted gun manufacturers, payday loan companies, our energy industry, and other businesses in legal industries that were “disfavored” by the Obama Administration.
“Their plan was straightforward – use the prudential regulators’ authority to threaten supervisory action against banks who chose to provide services to these industries.
“After that, the bank has an ultimatum – continue to bank these customers under the looming threat of scrutiny or comply with the regulators’ demands and remove that line of business from their books.
“The Biden Administration broke out the same playbook. This time their target was the digital asset ecosystem. Biden regulators resorted to vague, interpretive regulatory letters, threatening banks with negative examination scores, and fines if they continue their partnership with digital asset companies.
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Trump Banking EO to Benefit Knife Makers and Manufacturers
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