Bad Bank!

Bad Bank

A candidate for state office; in this case, for Florida State Commissioner of Agriculture, opens a campaign account at Wells Fargo. All is well, correct? Any bank would welcome new business, providing them more money on deposit that they can in turn use to make more money with, right? Not so, as Nikki Fried soon found out.

After inquiring about the possibility of the candidate receiving campaign contributions “from the medical marijuana industry in any capacity”, and about the candidate’s position on medical marijuana, Wells Fargo closed the account. Obviously, “advocating for expanded patient access to medical marijuana” does not sit well with the people at Wells Fargo, even though access to medical marijuana is a constitutional right in Florida.

On the surface, it may seem as though Wells Fargo is protecting itself from the Feds as far as providing banking services to legal marijuana businesses, however, this was a campaign account for a candidate to state office, and not a marijuana business, and begs the question: is it an attempt to damage the campaign of a candidate who’s views one does not agree with or are contrary to the interests of other account holders, or even stockholders?

So, is this the start of a new trend, where banks can close accounts of candidates whose views they do not agree with? Will they now begin closing accounts of people that call for better bank regulations, or simply because of their political views? Or businesses they do not like; or will they be heeding the calls of politicians like New York’s governor Cuomo to not do business with any legally operating entities he does not like? Banking is like any other business and discrimination based on political views or activity is not good business. Maybe it is time for people to do some research before handing any bank their hard earned money.