ICYMI: Business-Friendly Oklahoma Should Support Trump in Free Market Debanking Reform

“The mission is right — no one should be turned away from a bank because of their political leanings — but the means to achieve it are wrong.”

In case you missed it, Monica Collison, executive director of the Oklahoma Rural Association, authored an op-ed in Tulsa Today, warning about debanking legislation moving through the statehouse that could undermine the state’s pro-growth reputation – and calls on lawmakers to support President Trump’s ongoing efforts in D.C. to ensure fair access instead.

In her piece, Collison acknowledges the good intentions behind Oklahoma House Bill 3172, which looks to address the problem of politicized debanking at the state level, but argues the approach is fundamentally flawed: “For more than a decade, politicized federal regulators have pressured banks to close accounts for certain people and industries.”

Collison points out that Oklahoma is “one of the top states in the nation to do business” because “lawmakers have prioritized reducing regulatory burdens and allowing economic activity to thrive,” however, state-level debanking legislation risks doing the opposite.

She argues the additional red tape disproportionately harms smaller, rural banks, stating it “creates confusion, uncertainty and, at the end of the day, higher costs for consumers or, especially for smaller banks, accelerated branch closures or reduced access to credit for the communities that depend on it.”

She highlights current impacts in Oklahoma, where The First National Bank and Trust Co. has already had to close physical branches and argues that “further compliance costs could accelerate these closures.”  

Collison states that President Trump has already signed an executive order to address government-driven debanking and encourages Oklahoma lawmakers to follow the approach of Texas and Louisiana by supporting the president’s efforts in Washington. She adds that recent polling shows voters on both sides of the aisle support this federal approach.

Her conclusion is simple: “To keep Oklahoma competitive and to protect our rural communities, lawmakers should look to Washington to enact a federal fair access standard, rather than moving one forward at the state level this session in Oklahoma City.”

Read the full article in Tulsa Today HERE.