Technology@lemmy.worldbythemachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com
9 hours

Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe warned of debanking consequences

www.bankingdive.com English

The CEOs of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal Holdings and Stripe received letters Thursday from Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson, who demanded they not discriminate against customers based on political or religious grounds.

The FTC threatened enforcement action if customers are denied services for those reasons.

Any act to “deplatform customers or deny them access to financial products or services” may violate the Federal Trade Commission Act and “could lead to an FTC investigation and potential enforcement action,” the agency said in a Thursday press release. The FTC didn’t cite any specific infractions by the companies.

The commission is typically made up of five members, but has just two at the moment. President Donald Trump last fired two of the Democrats who sat on the commission.

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    Any act to “deplatform customers or deny them access” on political or religious grounds “could lead to an ... investigation and potential enforcement action,” the Federal Trade Commission asserted.
    • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      So I guess blocking payments to porn sites or whatever they were doing before is supposed to stop. Right? Right?

    • null@lemmy.orgEnglish
      5 hours

      Process the fucking payments, payment processors.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
        7 hours

        And certainly wouldn’t be selectively enforced anyway. This is 100% “rules for thee not for me” shit.

        Like if they get debanked for “religious” or “political” reasons (esp. when they are the ones politicizing literally everything), it’s a crime.

        Things that they consider political but sensible people consider “human rights”, tho? They sleep.

        • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          3 hours

          Totally a slow reaction to all the right wing stuff like info wars that was being debanked a number of years ago.

          Wikileaks? What was that?

    • favoredponcho@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6 hours

      That is for conservatives only though. The judges on the ICC who have been debanked for ruling against Netanyahu can pound sand.

    • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8 hours

      This is interesting.

      Trump sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, in January for $5 billion over what he alleged was the bank’s improper closure of his accounts in 2021 for political reasons. The bank is fighting the claims. The Trump Organization, led by the president’s sons, also sued Capital One last year over similar debanking allegations, and a federal judge last week dismissed that lawsuit, but gave the plaintiffs time to refile.

      Following that link:

      Trump sued JPMorgan and Dimon last month, seeking at least $5 billion in damages. He claims the alleged debanking came after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before the end of the president’s first term.

      So that’s what this is about.

      • pulsewidth@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8 hours

        Trump has been debanked since the late 90s by almost all US banks, because when you bankrupt two casinos and frequently spend time with mobsters they considered loans to you “high risk” for some reason.

        He’s been getting loans via Europe (mostly Deutschbank… which is also Putin’s bank of choice), and Russia, for 30 years.

        That is, until he won the lottery by convincing the stupidest people alive to vote him into the highest seat of power.

        So now it’s payback time against all the banks he thinks wronged him.

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      9 hours

      Anarchist/Environmentalists get debanked: I sleep.

      Epstein-club child-rapist billionaires get the slightest inconvenience: Real Shit.

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7 hours

      Nazis say that you are required to let Nazis be your customers. Also that you don’t have to serve people you don’t want to when it fits their narrative.

    • LuxSpark@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      9 hours

      Has this actually happened, or just playing the victim again?

        • Tim_Bisley@piefed.socialEnglish
          9 hours

          The OCC expressed concern that, between 2020 and 2025, the banks restricted access or required “escalated reviews and approvals before providing … access” to certain customers with connections to oil and gas, coal, firearms, private prisons, tobacco, payday lending, adult entertainment, digital assets or political action committees and political parties.

          It’s that last part that, presumably, spurred President Donald Trump in January to accuse Bank of America – while its CEO was on stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland – of debanking conservatives.

          • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            8 hours

            Ah yes. When i read the fascist FTC head sent the letter — a criminal who threatens antifascist media for political speech — I was certain consequences will only apply to debanking fascists.

          • GreenShimada@lemmy.worldEnglish
            9 hours

            “We called ourselves the MOD Squad, short for Merchants of Death.”

            Looks like Alcohol, tobacco, and firearms have a whole new set of friends.

        • LuxSpark@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          9 hours

          Thanks, but that article doesn’t mention too many specifics either. I am going to assume that if someone was denied service it’s because they are criminals, not conservatives. The line is blurry though.

    • BigMacHole@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      9 hours

      How DARE they Discriminate AGAINST the Epstein Class!

      -Republicans probably!