The President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has sued the nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, and its Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Dimon, for allegedly dropping him as a client in 2021 over his political affiliations.
According to Reuters, a counsel for Trump, Alejandro Brito, filed the $5bn lawsuit on Thursday in a Florida state court in Miami on behalf of the president and several of his hospitality companies.
The lawsuit said that the bank notified Trump and his various businesses that it was closing their banking accounts at the bank in February 2021, giving them 60 days’ notice before the closures went into effect.
According to CNN, the lawsuit argued that JPMorgan failed to provide a reason for terminating the accounts, and that Trump and his businesses “have subsequently learned that they were debanked as a result of political discrimination against President Trump, the Trump Organisation, its affiliated entities, and/or the Trump family.”
The lawsuit also maintained that Trump reached out to Dimon directly about the accounts being closed and that Dimon assured Trump that he would get back to him to address the account closures, “but, ultimately, never did.”
Reacting to the lawsuit, JP Morgan was quoted by Reuters as saying, “While we regret President Trump has sued us, we believe the suit has no merit. We respect the President’s right to sue us and our right to defend ourselves.”
Explaining further, the bank added, “JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company. We regret having to do so, but often rules and regulatory expectations lead us to do so.”
It was reported that in December, a U.S. banking regulator said that the nine largest U.S. banks in the past had placed restrictions on providing financial services to some controversial industries in a practice commonly described as ‘debanking’.
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