- The Washington Times - Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Bank of America officially took sides in America’s gun debate Tuesday, announcing it would no longer make loans to companies that make “military-style” weapons.

The second-biggest U.S. bank announced Tuesday that it would drop current loan-customers Vista Outdoors, Remington and Sturm Ruger, and blackball any other manufacturer of assault weapons.

Bank of America Vice Chairman Anne Finucane told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday her bank has told those companies “it’s not our intent to underwrite or finance military-style firearms.”

“We have had intense conversations over the last few months,” Ms. Finucane told Bloomberg, a network founded by tycoon and gun-control-financier Michael R. Bloomberg. “And it’s our intention not to finance these military-style firearms for civilian use.”

Ms. Finucane, who is listed at her company biography as head of BoA’s “environmental, social and governance efforts” said she expects to lose at least some of those gun-makers’ other business as well.

“These are clients we have enjoyed a relationship with,” she said. “There are those I think will reduce their portfolios and we’ll work with them and others that will choose to do something else.”

When asked whether Bank of America would also boycott retailers who sell such weapons, Ms. Finucane parried the question and didn’t rule it out.

“That’s a good public dialogue, but that’s a ways off,” she said.

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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