Last week, Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles said that he had been cut off by a payment processing company and suggested that it was because of his political views.
While Knowles later learned an administrative error was to blame, the conversation renewed discussion about whether Americans are losing banking accounts because of their politics, as first lady Melania Trump said happened to her and her son, Barron.
Enter the parallel economy, where conservative-themed products and services, such as coffee and cellphones, are thriving, and now banks hope to, as well.
The offerings include Old Glory Bank, marketed as “the pro-America bank owned by Main Street, not Wall Street.”
A financial technology company called ProLifeFintech is offering checking, saving, business and investment accounts for people who don’t want to support banks that directly or indirectly support abortion providers.
Regent Bank, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, seeks to attract customers who are people of faith — its website offers a daily devotional and says Regent’s purpose is “to show God’s love to our employees, clients & communities.”
These are not the Henry F. Potters of the banking world.
What is debanking?
Debanking, according to Nicholas Anthony, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, generally refers to the closure or denial of an account because the bank or the government considers it too risky — whether because of the type of commerce involved (say, gun sales or cryptocurrency) or because of the individual or company. The term describes not just account closures at a bank, but also a credit union, payment processing service or any other type of financial company.
President Donald Trump raised the issue the week of his second inauguration when he said, in remarks to the World Economic Forum, that Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase were withholding services to conservatives, something that both banks deny.
But in an interview, Anthony said that debanking is a real thing, and something that consumers are right to be concerned about.
“To be clear, I don’t think billions of people are having their accounts shut down every week, but it is happening enough that people are recognizing that this is an option on the table, this is something that could happen to them," he said.
“One of the best ways to protect yourself against an account closure is not just looking for someone like Old Glory Bank, which specializes in serving conservative clients, but really just looking for another option, having a backup option. That’s a great way to build out a lifeline for anyone,” Anthony said.
Robert E. Wright, an economic policy historian and a fellow at the Andersen Institute for Finance & Economics, said that debanking became an issue for conservative Americans during the Canadian trucker protests in 2022. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, which allowed Canada to suspend personal bank accounts and insurance policies of protest organizers.
It’s impossible to know how many people have been debanked, but the most recent figures from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation show that about 4% don’t have a bank account, a number that has been falling over decades.
Earlier this year, members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs were told that nearly 12,000 consumers filed complaints over the past three years with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying their accounts were improperly closed or they had been unable to open an account.
Who runs Old Glory Bank?
Old Glory Bank did not respond to an interview request, but in testimony before a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, Old Glory Bank President and CEO Mike Ring said his bank was created as a market response to both regulatory and participatory debanking.
The founders of the bank, who include Dr. Ben Carson, Larry Elder and former Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin-Christensen, bought an Oklahoma bank with one branch in November of 2022 and launched nationwide digital banking five months later.
Ring told committee members that Old Glory Bank has since grown from 300 local customers to serving more than 50,000 individuals and 2,000 small businesses.
“I humbly submit that we have better products than the mega banks, plus better service. Our customer service center is in beautiful Durant, Oklahoma, (not offshore), and we actually love our customers and respect their views,” Ring said in his testimony.
Ring was speaking the language of conservatives when he said, “We actually love our customers and respect their views.” One of the selling points of the parallel economy over the past few years has been “don’t give your money to people who hate you.”
But it’s not just conservatives worrying about debanking. In a rare moment of agreement with the president, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said at the same hearing, “Donald Trump was onto a real problem when he criticized Bank of America for its de-banking practices.”
Are conservative-facing banks new?
Michael Kofoed, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a Deseret News contributor, said that while niche banking has long been a part of the American banking system, the introduction of political themes is a new development.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s bad. It’s just new,” he said.
He added: “Banking depends on trust and trust can come from many places such as religion or perhaps even politics. Whether having similar political views or concerns about cancel culture translates to solvency is always the tough part. ... I trust someone because they have a shared experience with me, but that experience may not be correlated at all with whether a business is successful.”
That said, Old Glory customers are insured through the FDIC, as are customers of ProLifeFintech because of its affiliation with Regent Bank.
Consumers might not earn any more interest by choosing a niche bank like these, but might benefit from what economists call “the warm glow,” Kofoed said — which he described as the sense that “I did something right by investing in something that matches my values.”
But as much as niche banks are benefiting from people feeling passionate about political issues, they’ve really been enabled by the technology that allows people to bank anywhere.
Fewer of us are using physical banks at all. Newsweek reported in March that in the fourth quarter of 2024, “45 percent of U.S. bank account holders reported conducting activities in person at a branch, a decrease from 53 percent from the first half of 2019.”
Kofoed himself says that he uses a Utah bank even though he lives in Tennessee. Ring, Old Glory’s CEO, told the House Banking Committee that Old Glory has customers in all 50 states.
‘Aligned with godly principles’
On a video on the ProLifeFintech website, co-founder Betsy Gray said she had an abortion before she became a Christian and it was “a tragedy in my life.” Later, when she was running a medical clinic, she was dismayed to learn that her bank donated money to a major abortion provider, and she couldn’t find any others that didn’t also do that. “So many of the major banks promote the shedding of innocent blood,” she said in the video.
Gray said that God spoke to her heart and said: “Start my bank. Start pro-life bank.”
“We’re so excited to have a financial institution truly aligned with godly principles,” she said.
ProLifeFintech said its spokesman was not available, but the company’s website says it offers a “range of financial products and services designed to meet your needs and support your family’s financial journey, all while honoring God and aligning with your values.”
It offers checking, savings and money market accounts through Regent Bank.
The company celebrated its opening in March with an event that featured co-founder Nick Vujicic, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Vujicic, an evangelist and motivational speaker who was born without arms or legs, wrote on X, “In a world where many financial systems back causes contrary to God’s moral laws, ProLifeFintech is a bold stand. It’s a powerful alternative to the ‘woke’ financial systems that are on the rise.”
Anthony, at the Cato Institute, noted that banking services organized around values or religious principles aren’t new. “One case that is very widespread is Islamic finance, offering services in line with the Muslim faith and making sure that it is compliant with Islamic doctrine.” Similarly, the Kosher Financial Institute keeps track of financial institutions compliant with Jewish law. And Christian-leaning banking has also been around for more than a century, though with mixed results.
For example, Stewardship Bank of Oregon, which Christianity Today described as the nation’s “first Christian bank,” didn’t last four years. But St. Mary’s Cooperative Credit Association, which opened in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1908, was a success and went on to become St. Mary’s Bank, now open to anyone in the U.S.
The future of niche banks
Wright, the author of “Financial Founding Fathers: The Men Who Made America Rich,” among other books, said although offerings like Old Glory Bank may be new to the parallel economy, banking and politics have been entwined from the earliest days of America.
“We’ve always had a two-party system that began in Washington’s first administration, partly because of a bank. It’s why the Republicans split off from the Federalists,” he said.
Yet despite Americans’ growing distrust of institutions, most of us still use big banks, although that number is declining, Kiplinger reported earlier this year. But it’s all part of a cycle, Kofoed said.
“Ever since (Andrew) Jackson killed the Second Bank of the U.S., it’s as part of America as apple pie that we go from not trusting big banks, to setting up small ones, to those getting wiped out, to banks getting bigger, and we kind of go through this cycle. It’s not necessarily good or bad cycle, it’s just how we are as an American culture,” he said.