Bank of America has announced their intentions to spend half a billion dollars on “diversity issues.” This more than doubles their initial $200 million commitment.
According to a BoA press release, “We work across our company to address critical needs in our communities, including the lack of access to capital that diverse business owners face as they start or grow their businesses,” said Tram Nguyen, Global Head of Strategic and Sustainable Investments at Bank of America. “We want to empower the talented fund managers who keenly understand how to identify and support those business owners. Each time we support a minority- or women-led fund, they in turn support diverse entrepreneurs, which ultimately helps us toward achieving our goal to advance racial equality and economic opportunity.”
The bank has recently drawn the ire of Republican politicians and conservative organization like Consumers’ Research, which launched a new ad campaign on June 7 criticizing Bank of America’s environmental, social, and governance policies.
“The bank has brought China’s social credit system to American soil by using arbitrary ESG metrics to potentially lock individuals and businesses out of key banking services,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild said in a statement to the Daily Caller.
Bank of America has also faced scrutiny from Republican Reps Jim Jordan of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. The representatives sent a letter to the company on Wednesday expressing concerns about privacy violations and collusion between BoA and the FBI that took place during investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Bank of America has been ordered by the House Judiciary Committee to turn over relevant documents specified in the letter. The organization has made no comments on the investigation so far.
According to FBI whistleblowers, Bank of America shared private financial information of its customers (such as who had made purchases at gun stores) with the FBI, without a warrant or legal process. @Jim_Jordan and I are now demanding to know if other banks are doing the same. https://t.co/i3TQrfkGPP
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) June 12, 2023
In 2021, The Gateway Pundit reported that Bank of America searched through customers’ data and transaction records and provided these data to the FBI following the Capitol riot.
The country’s second-largest bank gave data and information to the feds at the request of the US government, without the knowledge or consent of the customers.
Bank of America scanned through customer records to flag the following:
- Were they in DC between January 5 and January 6
- Purchased a hotel stay or AirBnB in DC, Virginia, or Maryland after January 6
- Airline-related purchases since January 6
- Any purchase of weapons between January 7 and their upcoming suspected stay in the DC area around Inauguration Day
Bank of America allegedly tracked the records of 211 people who made certain purchases in and around Washington, DC, before and after the riots.