ADF’s score system fights against religiously or politically motivated de-banking

CV NEWS FEED // Legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom recently launched a score index to assess large businesses’ commitment to free speech and religious freedom, fighting against religiously or politically motivated de-banking.

The measure, called the “Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index,” was largely a response to banking companies closing several organizations’ bank accounts without notice or reason,  a practice known as “de-banking.” 

According to an article from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Bank of America suddenly closed an account in 2023 belonging to a Tennessee-based Christian charity in Uganda. The only reason that the bank provided for the closure was that the ministry exceeded the “bank’s risk tolerance” and that it no longer wanted to serve the ministry’s “business type.”

A similar instance occurred in 2022, when JPMorgan Chase de-banked the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), closing its checking account. According to ADF, the Committee was told that Chase might reopen the account if NCRF provided the bank with internal information. 

The requested information included a list of donors who contributed more than 10% of its operating budget, a list of political candidates that NCRF intended to support, and the criteria NCRF uses to choose those political candidates.

ADF’s business index ranked tech and financial giants on a percentage scale of 0% to 100%, with 100% being the score given to companies that respect free speech and religious freedom rights.

In both 2023 and 2024, Chase only received a ranking of 9%. Bank of America received an 8% score in 2023 but increased its score to 13% in 2024.

“In 2023, ADF’s Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index found that over 60 percent of the 75 largest tech and financial companies—including seven of the nation’s 10 largest commercial banks—have expansive ‘reputational risk’ or ‘hate speech’ policies that threaten their customers with cancelation or punishment,” ADF reported. “These vaguely worded policies are a threat to everyone—and allow for censorship against Americans of every political and religious stripe.”

ADF added:

This pattern of de-banking cannot continue unchallenged. Our nation’s Founders understood that the primary function of government is to protect God-given, pre-political rights. That means threats to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness don’t need to come from the government to cause real harm.

Powerful financial institutions like Bank of America, Chase, and Fidelity Charitable can threaten freedom just as easily as any government actor.

Along with ADF, 20 state treasurers and financial officers, 24 attorneys general, and financial professionals with over $250 billion in assets are calling on large financial businesses and holding them accountable, asking them “to investigate claims of religious and politically motivated de-banking.”

“Banks that are too big to fail are too big for bias,” ADF reported, continuing:

At this fractured time in our national history, business leaders have a vital role to play—and that includes (perhaps most prominently) those in C-suite positions at banks and other financial institutions.

It’s time for these leaders to step up, and to use their considerable influence to reject de-banking once and for all.