State Treasurer John Fleming’s recent recommendation against Bank of America serving as one of Louisiana’s 90 or so designated fiscal agents smacks of cheap political theater. Ironically, it also puts him in league with some big-name liberals.
Financial institutions that serve as state fiscal agents can hold state funds on deposit, a major responsibility but also a boon considering Louisiana’s $47.2 billion annual budget.
Those institutions vary greatly in size, from small-town banks and credit unions in places like Erath and Geismar to mega-banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, U.S. Bank and Capital One.
So why not Bank of America, one of the nation’s largest financial institutions — and one that plans to expand into New Orleans in the next few years, offering more competition for Louisiana consumers?
Clancy DuBos
According to Fleming, BoA is guilty of “deliberately denying banking services to customers and potential customers of religious organizations, gun manufacturers, fossil fuel producers and others based simply on their political perspectives and activities, not because of any bank policy or law violations.”
In a statement released in conjunction with his recommendation, Fleming cited a report by the conservative weekly Washington Examiner alleging that BoA “de-banked” two Christian organizations in 2023 — The Indigenous Advance Ministries and The Timothy Two Project International.
Fleming’s statement described Indigenous Advance Ministries as “a Christian charitable organization that assists at-risk children, prisoners, and sex trafficking victims in Uganda.” The statement added that The Timothy Two Project “trains pastors in more than 65 countries around the world.”
Fleming joined more than a dozen other Republican state treasurers in lobbing essentially the same accusations in an April 18 letter to BoA, claiming, “these actions amount to the weaponization of the American financial system.”
“Weaponization” is a favorite GOP buzzword these days — and a sure sign that there’s more to this story.
In its May 15 response to the treasurers’ letter, BoA noted that it provides banking services to some 120,000 faith-based U.S. nonprofits. The mega-bank added that its small businesses division does not serve “organizations that provide debt collection services [or] small business clients that operate outside of the United States.”
And there’s the rub.
According to BoA, the website for Indigenous Advance Ministries’ Call Center states that its business is “dedicated to pursuing the recovery of overdue invoices” for its clients — i.e., debt collection — and that Timothy Two Project International has operations in Cuba, “a country that is sanctioned under the Trading with the Enemy Act.”
In a recent video responding to my criticism of him on WWL-TV for his move against BoA, Fleming doubled down on his accusations.
“It has been widely publicized that religious conservatives, firearm manufacturers and oil and gas producers are being denied services by Bank of America,” Fleming said in his video. This time, Fleming did not specify WHICH religious conservatives, firearm manufacturers or oil and gas producers BoA refuses to serve.
Thankfully, some of BoA’s other critics chimed in — but with a very different take.
BoA was the world’s third-largest financier of the fossil fuel industry in 2023, according to a May report from the unabashedly liberal Sierra Club, which cited BoA as a “glaring example” of banks that “increased their exposure to climate risk by rolling back their already weak policies.”
“The bank quietly dropped their exclusions on directly financing Arctic drilling, coal mining, and coal-fired power plants,” the Sierra Club’s website stated. “Bank of America has also not committed to disclose its energy financing ratio, nor has it adopted near-term absolute emissions targets, as some peers have done.”
The Sierra Club isn’t alone in criticizing BoA for funding oil and gas producers. In February, The New York Times reported that the bank had “reneged” on its prior commitment to cease funding coal mines, coal-burning power plants and Arctic drilling projects.
“Bank of America’s change follows intensifying backlash from Republican lawmakers against corporations that consider environmental and social factors in their operations,” the NYT wrote.
Ironic, isn’t it, that Fleming, a ruby-red Donald Trump supporter, aligns himself with notorious lefties like the Sierra Club and the NYT in going after Bank of America?
Perhaps the treasurer’s sense of irony got lost amid the bright lights of GOP political theater.