Conservative group takes aim at Wall Street in report claiming big banks have

FIRST ON FOX — A conservative group is calling out the largest and most influential institutions on Wall Street for allegedly discriminating against the firearms industry and, in their view, working to “undermine America’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” 

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) in a new report highlights how some of the biggest names on Wall Street — including Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Bank of America — have allegedly used their control over capital to undercut firearms manufacturers, retailers and organizations representing lawful gun owners.

“Over the last decade, significant media attention has been paid to the left’s obsession with using banks and asset managers to end fossil fuels. Unfortunately, very little attention has been given on the left’s use of certain banks to chip away at legal private ownership and use of firearms,” the AAF Research Team writes in a memo shared with FOX Business. 

“Unfortunately, law-abiding Americans who exercise their 2nd amendment rights have a proverbial bullseye on their backs placed there, in large part, by certain banks and their left-wing comrades who are wanting to undermine Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” AAF states.

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National Rifle Association members look over pistols in the Smith & Wesson display at the 146th NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits on April 29, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia.  (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In the report, titled “Debanked by the Banks,” the group points to policies adopted by large financial institutions that have cut off firearms-related groups from access to capital and lines of credit.

AAF cites how Bank of America, for example, in 2018 announced that it would stop lending money to gun manufacturers that make certain “military-inspired” rifles for civilian use, like the AR-15, which have been used in multiple mass shootings, according to the New York Times. 

“We want to contribute in any way we can to reduce these mass shootings,” Bank of America Vice Chair Anne Finucane said at the time. 

The “Debanked” memo also notes how Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase reportedly pressured business software company Intuit to enact a policy that forbade gun manufacturers and sellers from using its accounting program, QuickBooks. An oversight investigation led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, revealed that Intuit had a policy that prohibited “guns and firearms manufacturing” from receiving QuickBook’s payroll services. That policy has since been reversed. 

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The Bank of America logo is displayed on the side of a Bank of America branch office in San Francisco, California. Bank of America in 2018 announced that it would no longer lend money to gun manufacturers that make AR-15-style rifles.  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The Senate Commerce Committee held a briefing on the matter in 2023 where JPMorgan acknowledged it was the source of the services policy. 

A JPMorgan spokesperson previously told FOX Business, “For any third-party processors that process payments in aggregate, we are unable to perform the due diligence expected by regulators for several highly-regulated industries, including internet firearms retailers, so we cannot process such payments for these processors. Any such merchants can look to work directly with us rather than through a third-party processor. We do allow payments to be processed through these processors for brick and mortar firearms retailers.“

Bank of America did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The AAF report mentions how other major financial institutions have taken steps in recent years to mitigate the reputational risk of their companies by distancing themselves from the firearms industry.

Since at least 2018, Goldman Sachs policy forbids the firm from investment in gun manufacturers, CNBC reported. CEO David Solomon has publicly stated that Goldman Sachs doesn’t work with companies that make assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines.

“We do business with retailers who sell guns, but we are thinking about what we should do and how we can contribute to this debate,” Solomon told CNN in 2019, after a gunman killed 22 people and wounded 24 others in a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

Goldman Sachs was unavailable for…