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BANK OF AMERICA CLOSES ACCOUNTS TIED TO CHRISTIAN OUTREACH MINISTRY


DEBT COLLECTION SERVICES, NOT RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, FUELED DECISION, BANK SAYS

By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, August 24, 2023
A Bank of America branch in Austin, Texas, August 13, 2011. | iStock/robwilson39

Did Bank of America discriminate against a Tennessee ministry over its Christian
views or was it simply a business matter?

Steve Happ, board member and founder of Indigenous Advance, a Memphis-based
charity that, along with Indigenous Advance Customer Center LLC, has partnered
with and served indigenous people in Uganda since 2015 to provide basic needs
and share the Gospel.

Despite holding deposit and credit card accounts with Bank of America since its
inception, Indigenous Advance received a series of letters in April in which the
bank announced it was closing the group’s accounts within 30 days.

According to the nonprofit legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the
only explanation provided in the letters was that "upon review of [the]
account(s) we have determined you're operating in a business type we have chosen
not to service at Bank of America." 

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The group’s deposit account had over $270,000, according to ADF. A partner
entity, Indigenous Advance Customer Center, LLC, and a church operating at the
group's address, Servants of Christ Community dba University House of Prayer
(UHOP), received similar letters closing their accounts.

Steve Happ (shaking hands on left), founder of Indigenous Advance Ministries in
Uganda. | Courtesy of Indigenous Advance Ministries

Happ said after experiencing “shock and confusion” upon receiving one of the
letters that referenced Indigenous Advance’s “business type,” he reached out
multiple times to Bank of America.

“I asked them, ‘What type of business do you think we are?’ and they wouldn’t
answer me,” he told The Christian Post via phone Wednesday. “They said, I’m
sorry, we cannot give you that information.’”

Far from being simply an inconvenience, Happ said Bank of America’s actions
significantly disrupted the group’s outreach and impact.

“When they closed the accounts, it meant that people who are dependent on us
couldn't eat,” he said. “To us, it’s not that big of a deal if your paycheck is
delayed for a day or two, but for Ugandans, they live day to day, trying to find
where they’re going to find their next meal.”

Happ said due to the bank’s actions, Indigenous Advance couldn’t pay its
employees or provide their ministry partners with donations until Hap returned
to the States to sort out the issue.

In a statement shared with CP, a spokesperson for Bank of America said,
“religious beliefs are not a factor in any account-closing decision,” but rather
it was debt collection services provided by Indigenous Advance’s customer center
that led to the account closures.

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The statement added: “Our U.S. division that serves small businesses doesn’t
offer banking services to organizations that provide debt collection services
for a variety of risk-related considerations and doesn’t serve small businesses
operating outside the United States.”

After a complaint was filed with the Tennessee attorney general’s office, it’s
still unclear whether the state will open an investigation, but regardless of
the outcome, ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President for Corporate
Engagement, Jeremy Tedesco, said Bank of America and other large banks are
leveraging their own “risk tolerance” policies in order to “box out disfavored
but legal business operations.”

The practice, said Tedesco, started during the Obama administration under
“Operation Chokepoint,” which sought to eliminate fraud in the U.S. banking
system but was criticized by Republicans and other industry advocates before it
was shut down in 2017 under the Trump DOJ. 

Tedesco said Operation Chokepoint used reputational risk as a “tool to get the
federal regulators to push banks to push certain industries out of banking
privileges and access to services” and may have opened the door to further
“de-bank” Christians, conservatives and other aligned groups which “hold certain
views the progressive Left doesn’t like. 

“So now it’s reputationally risky to serve Christian or other organizations that
the Left disagrees with,” he added.

He pointed to a separate incident last year where Chase Bank abruptly closed the
bank account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a
faith-based nonprofit organization led by Sam Brownback, former U.S.
Ambassador-At-Large for Religious Freedom.

“This is exactly what happened with JP Morgan Chase, Samuel Brownback, and the
same story’s playing out here with Indigenous Advance,” Tedesco said.





Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post and the author of BACKWARDS
DAD: a children's book for grownups. He can be reached
at: ian.giatti@christianpost.com.

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