Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., reportedly agrees with President Donald Trump that some of the biggest U.S. banks have employed discriminatory practices.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, Trump said Bank of America and other banks had unfairly closed conservatives' bank accounts.
Warren sent Trump a letter Tuesday asking the president to do something to stop banks from discriminating against customers, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
"There are times when a bank has a legitimate reason, and a legal obligation, to freeze or close a bank account," Warren wrote in her letter to the White House, ahead of a scheduled Senate Banking Committee hearing Wednesday. "But banks may be implementing these legal obligations in a sloppy and overbroad manner."
Although banks say they do not discriminate against customers on the basis of their backgrounds or beliefs, the senator said that her office has identified thousands of examples of consumers losing access to their bank accounts.
She said the four biggest U.S. banks – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo – accounted for most of the closures.
Warren suggested Trump support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency she helped after the 2008 financial crisis. However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has stopped the agency's enforcement and rule-making actions.
The senator also said the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and other regulators could assist in changing anti-money-laundering rules that might be causing improper account closures, the Journal reported.
While conservatives have alleged banks profiled some Americans as potential domestic terrorists after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, progressives say financial institutions have unfairly shut down accounts linked to formerly incarcerated individuals.
Reuters reported late last month that Bank of America and JPMorgan were set to lobby the White House and Congress about allegations of selectively closing customer accounts, arguing regulation around assessing customers should be clearer.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said late last month that his panel would investigate claims by conservatives that they've been "debanked" due to their political views.
One banking official said regulations could be improved to help some accounts from being closed.
"Banks are required to manage risk and satisfy their regulators, which can also restrict banks from sharing why an account has been closed," Austin Anton, a spokesman for the Bank Policy Institute, told the Journal.
"An important part of the solution is fixing the regulatory structure."