Contact: Camden R. Webb; Williams Mullen’s (North Carolina & Virginia, USA)
A federal court in Washington DC has ruled that a lawsuit against federal bank regulators challenging “Operation Choke Point” may proceed. Operation Choke Point is a program begun by the United States Department of Justice that was designed to “choke off” banking services to persons who were engaging in illegal activities, such as money laundering. According to the original intent of the program, the DOJ would use the federal banking laws to crack down on banks that, according to the DOJ, knew or should have known that their customers were engaging in unlawful conduct. However, after the program was implemented, some banks severed ties with bank customers of certain industries even where there was no indication that these industry members were engaged in anything but lawful business. Then, evidence surfaced that the federal government was not only attempting to choke off banking services to illegal actors but was also using the federal bank regulatory regime to advise banks that it was too risky to do business with certain industries such as tobacco retailers, firearms and ammunition, and payday lending. Members of these industries lost banking relationships, which adversely affected their businesses. One of the country’s largest payday lenders and the national trade organization for the industry filed a lawsuit to challenge the federal government’s conduct, naming the three main federal bank regulators—the FDIC, the Fed, and the Comptroller of the Currency—as defendants. The regulators moved to dismiss the case, but the Court has ruled that a portion of the plaintiffs’ claims may proceed.
