(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump, addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, via video link on Thursday, accused the CEOs of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase of not providing banking services to conservatives, but offered no evidence or specifics of any wrongdoing.
“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. … what you’re doing is wrong,” Trump said during a question and answer session with corporate leaders and CEOs, who were assembled on stage.
Speaking right after Trump made the comment, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan did not address the claim that the bank was shunning conservatives. Instead, he complimented Trump on the U.S. hosting the upcoming World Cup.
“We serve more than 70 million clients, we welcome conservatives and have no political litmus test,” a Bank of America spokesperson said in an email.
“We have never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop. We follow the law and guidance from our regulators and have long said there are problems with the current framework Washington must address. We welcome the opportunity to work with the new Administration and Congress on ways to remove regulatory ambiguity while maintaining our country’s ability to address financial crime,” a spokesperson for JPMorgan said in an emailed statement.
(Reporting by Lananh Nguyen, Caitlin Webber and Katharine Jackson; writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)