Bank of America’s decision to cut off credit for manufacturers of military-style weapons was driven by personal grief, not politics, the lender’s chief executive officer told investors Wednesday.
More than 150 employees of the Charlotte, N.C.-based company have been directly affected by gun violence and were pressuring executives to help, CEO Brian Moynihan told an investor who said the bank was aligning itself with factions opposed to the Second Amendment’s guarantee that Americans can keep firearms.
Bank of America outlined its policy earlier this month, joining businesses from rival Citigroup to car-rental agencies that have pulled back from gunmakers and lobbyists after a mass killing at a Florida high school on Valentine’s Day. A former student armed with a semi-automatic rifle shot 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas to death, police said, igniting a fierce debate about how the U.S. regulates firearms.
[Related: GOP complains to the Fed about banks cutting off gun companies]
In the months since, teenage survivors have argued that U.S. laws should be tightened, while President Trump proposed arming teachers and the National Rifle Association steadfastly reiterated its support for gun owners.
By refusing to lend to firearms-makers, Bank of America “is willfully giving up money, which seems an odd choice for a bank,” Justin Danhof, general counsel for conservative National Center for Public Policy Research — a company shareholder — said during the firm’s annual investor meeting.
It’s a stance at odds with Bank of America investor Warren Buffett, who has said publicly he avoids imposing his views on stockholders at his company, Berkshire Hathaway, Danhof argued. Bank of America, he said, “is also lending its voice to those who want to abolish the Second Amendment.”
The company’s policy is actually much more nuanced, Moynihan responded, citing the scores of employees with relatives killed in shootings.
“This doesn’t come from us,” he said. “It comes from teammates saying that we have to help.”
That mirrors the logic outlined by Bank of America Vice Chairman Ann Finucane in an April 10 interview with Bloomberg TV.
“We do have a few manufacturers of military-style firearms, and we’re in discussions with them,” she said. “We’ve let them know it’s not our intent to underwrite or finance military-style firearms on a go-forward basis.”
The bank stopped short of reviewing its relationships with retailers who sell such weapons, which Finucane said would touch on civil liberties and Second-Amendment issues.
“That’s a good public dialogue, but that’s a ways off,” she said. The bank’s manufacturing clients “know what our intentions are,” she added. “We have had intense conversations over the last few months.”
