Ron DeSantis signs anti-woke law to stop banks from freezing Floridians’ bank accounts based on their politics

Bethan Moorcraft
Updated 4-min read
Ron DeSantis signs anti-woke law to stop banks from freezing Floridians’ bank accounts based on their politics
Ron DeSantis signs anti-woke law to stop banks from freezing Floridians’ bank accounts based on their politics

The Treasury Department has taken aim at Florida’s new anti-woke banking law — warning it could open the floodgates for criminals to use and manipulate the U.S. financial system.

The new state law (HB 989), signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, declares it would be “unsafe and unsound” for banks to consider non-financial factors like politics, religion or environmental, social and corporate-governance (ESG) when doing business.

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“We reject a global elite trying to force their ideology on us by capturing major institutions,” DeSantis, who has led an aggressive campaign against so-called “woke” ideology in the Sunshine State, said when signing HB 989 into law.

“We are not going to allow big banks to discriminate based on someone’s political or religious beliefs.”

But while DeSantis claims he’s fighting discrimination, the U.S. Treasury has labeled the Florida law — and other similar laws under consideration in mostly conservative states like Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota — as a potential threat to national security.

Here’s why policymakers are butting heads over so-called debanking — and what it means for Americans.

DeSantis’ goal with HB 989 was to “strengthen Florida’s protections for consumers … from being forced to adopt ideologies or reflect a preferred political behavior.”

Per an Associated Press report, DeSantis said the law will protect the access that conservative groups and the firearms industry have to the financial sector — and stop them from having their accounts frozen or closed.

The law makes it illegal for banks to “deny or cancel, suspend, or terminate its services to a person, or to otherwise discriminate against a person in making available such services” on the basis of several factors, including (but not limited to):

  • The person’s political opinions, speech, or affiliations

  • Any factor if it is not a quantitative, impartial, and risk-based standard, including any such factor related to the person’s business sector

  • The person’s engagement in the lawful manufacture, distribution, sale, purchase, or use of firearms or ammunition

  • The person’s engagement in the exploration, production, utilization, transportation, sale, or manufacture of fossil fuel-based energy, timber, mining, or agriculture

It also allows Floridians to appeal “unwarranted account cancellations and restrictions” through a coordinated complaint and investigatory process within the state’s Office of Financial Regulation.

This potentially places banks and other financial institutions operating in the Sunshine State between a rock and a hard place. They’re required by federal law to implement U.S. criminal and national security policies — including stringent background checks — but in doing so, they risk breaching Florida’s broad-based anti-discrimination law.

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The Treasury has openly criticized the new Florida law and any other state laws that bar financial institutions from carrying out necessary risk assessments.

In a July letter to lawmakers, obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson reiterated the importance of banks being able to probe customers in order to prevent money laundering and counter terrorist financing.

“State laws interfering with financial institutions’ ability to comply with national security requirements heighten the risk that international drug traffickers, transnational organized criminals, terrorists and corrupt foreign officials will use the U.S. financial system to launder money, evade sanctions and threaten our national security,” he wrote.

The letter was sent in response to a July 8 request from Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who shared concerns about the potentially negative impact of new debanking laws.

“To any states that are considering similar laws, I urge them to think twice before putting America’s national security at risk,” Rep. Gottheimer said in a statement.

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.