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Citizens provided banking services to CoreCivic and The GEO
Group, both companies that own or run private prisons throughout
the country. Under President Donald Trump, both companies have
been contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement to
operate detention or deportation centers as part of the Trump
administration crackdown on illegal immigration.
The bank came under an intense public campaign for its
relationship with CoreCivic and GEO who demanded that Citizens
cut ties with the two companies. At least two city councils in
New Jersey — Montclair and Jersey City — have voted to withdraw
their money from Citizens if they did not cut ties with the
private prison operators.
“Today’s announcement that Citizens Bank will exit its current
lending relationships with private prison giants CoreCivic and
The GEO Group is an important victory for the people who refused
to let a major bank finance human suffering brought on by ICE
detention activities of the current federal administration,”
said the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, in a statement.
In a statement, Citizens said they were ending their
relationship with the two companies purely for business reasons
and not because of political pressure. The federal government
has said it plans to buy several facilities run by CoreCivic and
is in talks to do so with GEO. Because of this, Citizens said
the companies' financial needs have been reduced.
“This is a business decision based on changed commercial
circumstances and does not reflect any change in our view
regarding these companies’ business models or operations,” the
bank said in a statement.
Banks cutting ties with businesses or individuals is known as
debanking, and it has become a politically charged topic in
Trump's second term. Under the Trump administration, bank
regulators have been conducting investigations into bank's
debanking practices, with the potential of these bank regulators
issuing fines or penalties to any banks that are found to have
committed debanking.
“All banks, including ourselves, must consider these regulatory
and contractual frameworks in making decisions on who to bank or
not bank," Citizens said.
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