ICYMI: AFFM Joins Florida’s Voice to Discuss Need for Federal Fair Access to Banking Solutions

In case you missed it, Americans for Free Markets (AFFM) Executive Director David Ibsen joined Florida’s Voice, to discuss the need for federal action to ensure fair access to banking. During the interview, Ibsen discussed what’s at stake and why a federal fair access solution is needed to address the issue.

Ibsen explained how debanking began with federal regulators using loose, subjective risk standards to pressure banks to stop serving legitimate customers for underlying political motives.

“Under the Obama and Biden administrations, what they did was they classified certain industries or certain businesses using these vague concepts of risk. So, the firearms industry or fossil fuels industry, by using these subjective views and intimating to the banks that these areas of work were very risky, they basically were forcing the banks to make a decision to drop services for these industries, which for those administrations were politically unfavored or ideologically unaligned.”

President Trump’s executive order last year marked an important step in ending government-driven debanking and encouraging federal regulators to evaluate banks on measures like asset quality, earnings and liquidity. However, additional steps from the administration and Congress are needed to continue this progress. 

Additionally, Ibsen addressed ongoing efforts in Texas and Florida to tackle debanking at the state level. Ibsen acknowledged that consumers and businesses need reliable access to credit and banking services but warned that a state-by-state approach would raise costs for banks and their customers at a time when affordability is already a top concern.

“… And then what you’ll have is a 50 state patchwork of conflicting laws and regulations. All that’s going to do is increase the legal costs and compliance costs for the banks that will of course then divert resources away from customer services, also passing on costs to the customers.”

Listen to David Ibsen’s full interview on Florida’s Voice HERE.