Home»Politics»Blowback Against Bank’s Restrictive Gun Policies: Louisiana Bans Citi & Bank Of America From Bond Sale

Blowback Against Bank’s Restrictive Gun Policies: Louisiana Bans Citi & Bank Of America From Bond Sale

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Remember when all those banks started following the lead of the Marxist Obama administration under Operation Choke Point?  Yeah, well that anti-Second Amendment stance is now going to start costing some of them.  Louisiana’s states’ bond commission voted on Thursday to ban both Citigroup and Bank of America from being able to work on their upcoming debt sale due to the banks’ “restrictive gun policies.”

The vote was 7 to 6 to ban both banks from participating.

According to The Daily Wire, the sale is worth about $600 million.


“I personally believe the policies of these banks are an infringement on the rights of Louisiana citizens,” Treasurer John Schroder said in a statement. “As a veteran and former member of law enforcement, I take the Second Amendment very seriously.”

“No one can convince me that keeping these two banks in this competitive process is worth giving up our rights,” he added.

He’s right.  This is nothing more than political correctness and abuse of the banks power to shut down gun dealers, which then effects gun buyers.

Citi spokesman Scott Helfman said in a statement, “Citi adopted this policy because we believe it is a positive and balanced step to promote gun safety without undermining free markets or Second Amendment rights.  It is disappointing that the taxpayers of Louisiana will be deprived from competitive bidding for necessary public works because the process has been politicized.”

That’s laughable.  The bank wants it both ways.  They didn’t do this to promote gun safety without undermining free markets or Second Amendment rights.  They did it in conjunction with the Obama Justice Department under former Attorney General Eric Holder.

Furthermore, what goes around comes around.  Those taxpayers are gun purchasers, dealers and others who own guns.  Their representatives represented them against these banks to declare in a free market, “No, thank you.  We don’t want your business since you aren’t interested in ours.”

And I’m not putting words in their mouths.  Bloomberg reports:

During 90 minutes of deliberations during a state bond commission meeting on Thursday, Louisiana legislators discussed the merits of the ban. The state said it received solicitations from 19 banks interested in underwriting the $600 million sale of so-called Garvee bonds, which would finance interstate improvements and tunnel replacements.

The exclusion won’t be a major hit to Bank of America or Citigroup, which together underwrote about $110 billion of municipal bonds last year, about 27 percent of those that were issued, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Louisiana state senator Jay Luneau voiced concern that the state would no longer get the best rate on the bond sale if it were to exclude the biggest underwriters. Luneau also asked the commission whether the state would also prohibit the bank awarded the bond deal from re-selling some of the debt to Bank of America and Citigroup on the secondary market.

“What I’m trying to point out is they could still be involved — even if we did this — in the secondary market,” said Luneau, a Democrat. “Some of our intent is to do business with who is best for the state of Louisiana from a financial perspective with these bonds because we’re talking about a lot of money here.”

Other state officials took Bank of America and Citigroup to task on Thursday over the gun policies, delivering a simple message: Stick to banking.

“Do you realize how important the second amendment is to the people of Louisiana?” Blake Miguez, a Republican member of Louisiana’s House of Representatives, asked Citigroup’s Brandee McHale, the company’s head of corporate citizenship.

Tyler Durden reminds us:

As a reminder, Bank of America in April said it would stop making new loans to companies that make assault-style rifles for civilian use. At the time, the bank said at least 150 of its employees had been affected by gun violence over the years.

One month earlier, Citigroup became the major banking institution to set restrictions on the firearm industry in March, when it announced plans to prohibit retailers that are customers of the bank from offering bump stocks or selling guns to people who haven’t passed a background check or are younger than 21. The restrictions applied to companies that rely on the bank for store credit cards, lending and other services.

Citigroup’s Brandee McHale, the company’s head of corporate citizenship, defended the bank’s policies at the state’s bond commission meeting. “This policy does not infringe on constitutional rights, and certainly not the right to bear arms,” she said at the meeting.

Furthermore, it should be noted:

The American people lent $45 billion to Bank of America during the bailout. That bailout came with a hefty $100 billion guarantee against losses on toxic assets.

That money came from American taxpayers. It came from gun owners and non-gun owners.

But Bank of America has warned that it will refuse to lend money to manufacturers of “assault-style guns.” It had previously announced it was edging away from the coal business to fight global warming.

Citigroup got $476 billion in cash and guarantees: the most of any bank. Now Citibank is repaying the generosity of the American people by requiring its clients to impose their own gun control policies on their stores. Impose gun control on your customers or Citibank will discriminate against you.

I guess these banks think they can just do what they want and the people will never fight back, never speak up and never challenge them.  Looks like Louisiana has had enough of banks with an un-American attitude.  How about your state?

Article posted with permission from Freedom Outpost

 

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