Trump sues JP Morgan Chase for ‘debanking him for political reasons’

Donald Trump is suing banking giant JP Morgan Chase and its chief executive Jamie Dimon for five billion dollars (£4bn), accusing the firm of debanking him and his businesses for political reasons after he was voted out of office in January 2021.

The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade County Court in Florida, alleges that JP Morgan abruptly closed multiple accounts in February 2021 with just 60 days’ notice and no explanation.

By doing so, Mr Trump claims JP Morgan cut the ex-president and his businesses off from millions of dollars, disrupted their operations and forced the Republican urgently to open bank accounts elsewhere.

“JPMC debanked (Trump and his businesses) because it believed that the political tide at the moment favoured doing so,” the lawsuit alleges.

In a statement, JP Morgan said that it “regrets” that Mr Trump sued them but insisted they did not close the accounts for political reasons.

“We believe the suit has no merit,” a bank spokesperson said. “JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company.”

Debanking occurs when a bank closes the accounts of a customer or refuses to do business with a customer in the form of loans or other services.

Once a relatively obscure issue in finance, debanking has become a politically charged issue in recent years, with conservative politicians arguing that banks have discriminated against them and their affiliated interests.

Debanking first became a national issue when conservatives accused the Obama administration of pressuring banks to stop extending services to gun stores and payday lenders under “Operation Choke Point”.

Mr Trump and other conservative figures have alleged that banks cut them off from their accounts under the umbrella term of “reputational risk” after the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Since Mr Trump came back into office, the president’s banking regulators have moved to stop any banks from using “reputational risk” as a reason for denying service to customers.

“JPMC’s conduct … is a key indicator of a systemic, subversive industry practice that aims to coerce the public to shift and re-align their political views,” Mr Trump’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.

Mr Trump accuses the bank of trade libel and accuses Mr Dimon himself of violating Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.