Authored by Michael Ross via RealClearMarkets,
On paper, Zulfat Suara and Steve Happ don’t have much in common.
One, a Muslim woman, immigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria in the 1990s and now serves on the Nashville City Council. The other, a Christian man, is a Memphis native with a background in software who began a ministry partnering with Ugandan non-profit charities that care for orphaned and at-risk children in 2015.
But they do have at least one thing in common: Both were canceled by large national banks with little warning and virtually no explanation.
Suara, who like Happ, is also involved in non-profit work, received a vaguely worded notice of cancellation from Regions Bank earlier this year, giving her 30 days to find a new bank. Happ’s cancelation by Bank of America came in 2023 shortly before he made a trip overseas—forcing him to scramble for solutions and delay hard-earned paychecks to Ugandans.
Happ’s notice said he was operating in the wrong “business type.” As we reported in this year’s report for our Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index, which measures corporate respect for free speech and religious liberty, these problematic policies are present in at least 69% of the country’s largest financial institutions.
Incidents like these are a small sample of a larger trend of viewpoint- based discrimination in financial services—known as “de-banking”— which has also affected firearms and fossil fuels because of radical net zero emissions commitments and government initiatives like Operation Choke Point. It has also garnered the attention of both sides of the political aisle.