Lawmakers Call Out Major U.S. Banks For Discriminating Against Muslim Americans

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) released a letter Thursday demanding answers from the heads of several leading U.S. banks about policies that have disproportionately targeted Muslim Americans and communities of color.

“The lack of information regarding the scope of de-risking practices and the impact on Muslim American consumers and other minority communities hinder policymakers’ ability to protect consumers,” reads the letter, which was exclusively shared with HuffPost before it was sent to executives of Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank.

A quarter of all Muslim Americans have faced strenuous challenges while banking in the United States, according to a report released last year by the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding, a nonprofit that provides research about Muslims in the U.S. Muslim Americans said their bank accounts were suspended or closed without explanation, and their payments were subjected to extra scrutiny, part of a phenomenon often called “ banking while Muslim .”

Of the Muslim Americans who’ve experienced challenges with financial institutions, 93% said they’ve faced challenges with their personal bank accounts. Among them, 40% reported they were turned down when trying to open a new account and 33% said their personal accounts had been suspended or closed. Muslims were also twice as likely as the general population to have issues with business and nonprofit accounts.

“Banks don’t get a free pass to discriminate against Muslim Americans and other minority groups in the name of preventing suspicious banking activity,” Warren told HuffPost in a statement. “I am concerned that big banks are engaging in practices that harm consumers and