JPMorgan Chase Bank (WePay)

New York
Banks, Diversified Financials

Risk Level:

Rating - Danger
High Risk

Summary:

JPMorgan Chase has terminated business with conservative customers and reserves the right to cease doing business with partners who violate the company's vague Code of Conduct. JPMorgan Chase has canceled multiple legal industries and high-profile accounts, including Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (USA). The company has discriminatory policies that exclude religious nonprofits from charitable giving and fails to protect its employees from viewpoint discrimination. JPMorgan Chase uses its reputation and corporate funds to advance ideological causes and groups hostile to freedom of expression. The bank's political contributions have gone to ideological PAC funds. For these reasons, JPMorgan Chase receives a High Risk rating.

Criteria
Risk Level
Rationale
Corporate Weaponization
Criteria

Has denied service to customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level
Rationale

JPMorgan Chase quit doing business with private detention companies in response to leftist pressure groups who disagreed with the Trump administration’s immigration policy (1). There are allegations from well-known conservative activists that their accounts were terminated with no warning or stated reason (2)(3). CEO Jamie Dimon has stated that the bank would not do business with manufacturers of “military-style” weapons for civilian consumers, and the bank has stated that its business relations with firearms manufacturers “have come down significantly and are pretty limited” (4)(5). U.S. Senators have expressed concern about this discrimination, and state laws have even prohibited the bank from bidding on government bonds, debt, or financing, but the bank has held firm in its stance (6)(7). JPMorgan Chase’s Code of Conduct uses subjective language that prohibits suppliers and even customers from engaging in “discrimination, harassment, or inappropriate or abusive conduct” (8). The bank no longer lends to coal mining projects and limits funding to Arctic drilling projects (9). WePay, a payment processor owned by JPMorgan, terminated an account of a conservative political group that was set to host an event with Donald Trump, Jr., in 2021 (10). Chase Bank also terminated the account of Lt. Gen. Flynn, former White House National Security Advisor, due to “reputational risk” in 2021, though the bank later retracted the cancellation as a “mistake” (11). The company received a score of 100 on the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Among other requirements, this means JPMorgan Chase has pledged to vet vendors based on LGBTQ policies (12). In October 2022, JPMorgan Chase canceled its banking relationship with the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a nonpartisan, multi-faith nonprofit (13)(14). In response to this action, NCRF started an online media campaign with the name #ChasedAway and a corresponding website to track other examples of this type of cancellation.

Criteria

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level
Rationale

JPMorgan Chase will not not match employee contributions to organizations that promote religious belief or practice, including churches (1). It has a ban on matching contributions to groups with an “adversarial and confrontational” approach to issues, but this does not extend to ideological groups like the HRC or the American Civil Liberties Union (2).

Criteria

Employment policies fail to protect against discrimination based on political affiliation/views and/or religion.

Risk Level
Rationale

JPMorgan Chase does not protect its employees against viewpoint discrimination (1).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy
Criteria

Uses corporate reputation to support ideological causes and/or organizations hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level
Rationale

JPMorgan Chase is a member of the Business Coalition for the Equality Act (1). Its CEO, Jamie Dimon, kneeled during the “National Anthem” to show support for racial justice (2). After initially weighing in against the Georgia election integrity law with a general statement about voting rights, CEO Jamie Dimon refused to sign an open letter of business leaders inspired by the Georgia law, saying that he does not have a need to weigh in on state-specific matters of legislation (3)(4). JPMorgan Chase has signed the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge (5).

Criteria

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level
Rationale

JPMorgan Chase gave $500,000 to the Southern Poverty Law Center and other BLM-adjacent organizations, totaling in a $30 billion racial justice investment (1)(2)(3). JPMorgan has also donated to Planned Parenthood (3). After the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the company has also pledged to cover its employees’ abortion-related travel costs (4). The JPMorgan Chase Foundation has provided funding to various local chapters of the ACLU (5). JPMorgan Chase is a Titanium sponsor of Out and Equal (6).

Criteria

Uses corporate political contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level
Rationale

The JPMorgan Chase PAC contributes to ideological groups hostile to freedom of expression such as the Equality PAC (1).

All links were last accessed and all information was updated on:
March 29, 2023

Company reports are intended for educational use only. Full Disclaimer

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