The financial system / the banking sector has arguably increasingly been used as a political tool over the past several years, sometimes an extra-legal one. And not only against various “axis of evil” countries but also against domestic citizens or groups.

Nothing to see here, or a trend?

What do you think about the examples below? Who will be the next querdenker or group of lateral thinkers to be denied using a bank account, or get his, hers or their assets frozen?

(Last updated 2023-03-18)

Examples against domestic citizens or groups

• 🇺🇸 2010 Operation Payback: Visa, MasterCard and PayPal choked off donations to WikiLeaks

• 🇺🇸 2010 Tea Party: IRS official admitted the agency had been aggressively scrutinizing groups with names such as “Tea Party” and “Patriots”

• 🇺🇸 2013 Operation Choke Point: The US government pressured banks to “debank” gun sellers, coal producers, etc

• 🇹🇷 2016 Gülen supporters: The Turkish government cancelled a banking license over Gülen links

• 🇮🇪 2016 Pro-Palestine activists: Palestine bank account closures in Ireland “clearly political”

• 🇺🇸 2017 Jihad Watch: Online payment company PayPal banned Jihad Watch and the site’s director Robert Spencer from accepting donations

• 🇺🇸 2018 Gab social media. Gab was banned by Strip. The twitter-like service said it was placed on “banking blacklist”

• 🇩🇪 2018 Nicolaus Fest: German AfD politician Nicolaus Fest debanked by Deutsche Bank

• 🇺🇸 2018 Proud boys: Shopify banned shops tied to the Proud Boys

• 🇦🇹 2020 Martin Sellner: Austrian activist Martin Sellner claims to have been blocked by 17 banks

• 🇸🇪 2020 Swedish journalist: Swedbank terminated a journalists bank account without just cause

• 🇺🇸 2020 Amazon: Amazon halted donations to members of Congress who voted against certifying the Electoral College results

• 🇺🇸 2020 Epik: PayPal drops domain name registrar Epik

• 🇺🇸 2020 New Project 2: Patreon Alternative New Project 2 was banned by MasterCard

• 🇺🇸 2021 January 6 protestors: PayPal and Venmo banned organizers of the “Stop the Steal” rally. Stripe, Shopify and GoFundMe acted similarly

• 🇺🇸 2021 Fair access rule paused: OCC announced pause of the “Fair Access” rule that was intended to prevent another Operation Choke Point

• 🇺🇸 2021 Freedom Phone: PayPal banned Freedom Phone permanently, as did Shopify and Amazon Pay. PayPal also held up $1.2 million in payments(!).

• 🇺🇦 2021 Anatoly Shariy: Ukrainian politician (blogger?) Anatoly Sharij’s real estate and bank accounts were frozen

• 🇨🇦 2022 Canadian truckers: The Canadian government froze bank accounts for “anyone linked” with protests

• 🇺🇸 2022 Colin Wright: This evolutionary biologist was kicked off PayPal and Etsy

• 🇺🇦 2022 Anatoly Shariy: Ukrainian politician Anatoly Sharij claims Binance cryptocurrency exchange took money from his wallet

• 🇺🇸 2022 Firearm retailers: Visa, Mastercard and American Express added ISO merchant category for firearms retailers after political pressure. This opens up for information sharing to third parties (i.e. who is buying a gun, potentially side-stepping the US Constitution)

• 🇺🇸 2022 Toby Young: The British journalist, chief editor of the Daily Skeptic, saw his and the company’s account suddenly suspended by PayPal

• 🇺🇸 2022 PayPal; PayPal attempted to impose a $2500 fine on users who promoted “misinformation”

• 🇬🇧 2022 Santander. Santander UK announced limits of payments to crypto exchanges

• 🇧🇷 2022 Brazil protests. Brazil Supreme Court ordered banks to seize/block funds from protesters participating in mass demonstrations

• 🇺🇸 2022 US government: Biden administration wants to make it easier to seize crypto without criminal charges

• 🇬🇧 2022 Nationwide. UK’s Nationwide imposed limit on transfers to crypto-currency providers (following similar moves by Santander, TSB, Virgin Money and Starling Bank)

• 🇳🇬 2022 Nigeria: Nigeria capped ATM cash withdrawals at ~$45 daily in part to promote its CBDC eNaira

• 🇺🇸 2022 Fed: U.S. Fed proposes plan for banks to manage climate-linked financial risk

• 🇪🇺 2022 Basel 4: EP groups proposed amendments on Basel 4 to penalise fossil fuels

• 🇺🇸 2022 Crypto bill: Senator “Pocahontas” Warren introduces new crypto bill targeting self-custody wallets

• 🇺🇸 2023 Signature Bank: “…regulators wanted to send a very strong anti-crypto message” according to board member & former congressman Barney Frank

• 🇺🇸 2023 South Dakota: South Dakota governor vetoed bill which tried to prevent Bitcoin and crypto from beinged defined as money

• 🇺🇸 2023 Signature Bank: Sources say any buyer of Signature must agree to give up all the crypto business at the bank (later denied by FDIC)

• 🇺🇸 2023 Treasury Secretary: Treasury Secretary Yellen’s comments were interpreted as very bad news for small community banks

Examples when the banking sector needed a bail-in or bailout

• 🇨🇾 2014 Haircuts on savings; The government confiscated parts of households’ savings through haircuts on deposit accounts
• 🇱🇧 2022 Withdrawal limits: The country of Lebanon was hit by a wave of robberies after imposing withdrawal limits

International examples of using the financial system as a weapon

• 🇮🇷 2018 Iran: SWIFT suspended Iranian banks’ access to messaging system
• 🇻🇪 2019 Venezuelan gold: Bank of England blocking the release of 31 tonnes of gold
• 🇷🇺 2022 Russia: International sanctions during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Examples of when Swedish authorities confiscated cash

• 🇸🇪 2017 Confiscation: 98-year-old Ada wanted to trade in her bank notes - the government confiscated her life savings
• 🇸🇪 2017 Confiscation: Gunnar tried to redeem SEK 311,500 - but the Riksbank kept all the money
• 🇸🇪 2021 Confiscation: Inherited SEK 85,000 from his father – the government confiscated the banknotes
• 🇸🇪 2021 Confiscation: Gunnar had 2.6 MSEK in his bedroom - now the Riksbank will burn it all

What do you think? Feel free to share your comments, views, or provide additional examples - or tell us what you think should be removed - via the form below.

Cover image: Italian tank C-1 Ariete. No changes were made to the image retrieved from WikiMedia Commons.