Congressman Al Green Admonishes the Largest U.S. Banks for Their Historical Ties to Slavery During Financial Services Committee Hearing

(Washington, D.C.) – On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, Congressman Al Green, Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, participated in a hearing entitled, “Holding Megabanks Accountable: Oversight of America’s Largest Consumer Facing Banks.” He released the following statement:

“I thank the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the largest U.S. banks for testifying today and for the willingness of those with historical ties to slavery to discuss how they might atone for the ownership and/or collateralization of enslaved human beings. Many financial institutions are connected to slavery through their predecessor banks. These predecessor banks are known to have accepted enslaved people as collateral for loans and periodically took ownership of enslaved people when borrowers defaulted on their loans.”

“Witnesses who testified during this hearing are the CEOs of the megabanks at the forefront of decisive public interest issues, ranging from climate risk to racial equity. Revealing the foundational role that slavery played in building the U.S. economy is another decisive public interest issue. As such, it is critically important for each of these megabanks to not only accept responsibility for the role they played in the perpetuation of slavery but also atone for their profiteering from accepting enslaved human beings as collateral for loans and in some cases, taking ownership of them upon default.”

“I thank the Honorable Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) for her leadership and acknowledge the work of the entire committee for making this hearing possible. I am grateful for such a critical hearing and look forward to these megabanks taking corrective action and publicly atoning for their past slavery-related transgressions.”