washington—jpmorgan chase jpm 143decrease red down pointing triangle has become the target of a campaign by republican state officials seeking to expose what they see as religious discrimination in the bank’s business practices nineteen republican state attorneys general sent a letter this month addressed to jpmorgan chief executive jamie dimon  accusing the nation’s largest bank of a “pattern of discrimination” and of denying customers banking services because of political or religious affiliations in march 14 republican state treasurers wrote a similar letter to mr dimon making the same accusations the letters said jpmorgan terminated client accounts due to religious beliefs—which the bank denies—and they also demanded the bank respond to detailed survey questions on issues of concern to conservatives the survey probes policies around speech freedoms for example in a nod to conservatives who believe employees of faith should feel free to express disagreement with workplace priorities such as diversity or climate initiatives they view as progressive jpmorgan employees have been receiving emails over the past several days making the same points as the letters according to people familiar with the matter and a sample email viewed by the wall street journal the pressure campaign comes ahead of jpmorgan’s annual shareholders meeting on tuesday an investor has submitted a resolution asking the bank to launch an investigation examining the republican claims the board is recommending shareholders vote no “we call on jpmorgan chase to stop its religious and politically biased discrimination and start living up to its commitment to an inclusive society where everyone feels welcomed equal and included” wrote kentucky attorney general daniel cameron in a letter signed by 18 other republican attorneys general from alaska to west virginia the accusations underscore a growing challenge posed to us businesses in a nation riven by ideological and partisan differences the dysfunction in washington is driving both republicans and democrats to pursue their agendas in the states which are lining up on opposite sides of thorny questions over environmental issues abortion rights gun laws diversity and inclusion corporations used to operating seamlessly across 50 states are left to straddle the growing divide that is proving challenging democraticrun states such as california or new york are restricting their state pension funds from investing in fossilfuel businesses others are restricting investment in gun makers republican states including texas and oklahoma are responding by banning any institution that complies with such blue state rules from participating in state business such as bond underwriting conservative advocates say corporations are giving priority to such issues as gay rights or reproductive health access over the freedom to oppose such initiatives for reasons of faith the letters and emails to jpmorgan echo this criticism saying the bank suspended the accounts of at least three conservative faithbased organizations for religious reasons one of the accounts was opened by a multifaith group the national committee for religious freedom run by sam brownback former kansas governor and trump administration ambassadoratlarge for religious freedom when mr brownback tried to make a deposit a few weeks after the account was opened last year a teller told him it was closed jpmorgan engaged with mr brownback blaming the suspension on a failure to receive information it needed for regulatory reasons according to a transcript of a call addressing the issue and viewed by the journal mr brownback remains unconvinced “we need to bring these practices to light so that banks will no longer think they can get away with this kind of discrimination” mr brownback said in a filing urging support for the shareholder resolution on tuesday jpmorgan strenuously denied the claims but declined to address details of individual accounts “we have never and would never exit a client relationship due to their political or religious affiliation” a spokesperson in a statement also noting the bank serves 50000 accounts with religious affiliations the republican officials also are demanding the bank publicly clarify its position on a range of issues at the center of conservative causes from free speech to religious rights the request comes in the form of a new investment tool called the viewpoint diversity score business index which allows investors to screen companies for “biblically responsible” management and a faithbased world view according to the surveyor’s website the survey asks extensive questions about whether a company assures employees are free to say what they want on social media it also asks how much money the survey respondent has donated to wellknown liberal nonprofit advocacy groups which it mentions by name center for american progress for example a progressive advocacy group or the southern poverty law center a civilrights group known for legal work against extremist groups the index is designed as a mirror image of other such surveys—conducted by ratings firms or research universities—which typically show how extensively an institution is committed to environmental social and governancebased investing or esg which has become shorthand for a broad array of causes whether climate or social issues that are often championed by progressives the letter from the attorneys general dated may 2 notes that jpmorgan celebrates its strong scores in a survey by human rights campaign an lgtbq advocacy group but when jpmorgan was asked to fill out the survey probing positions important to conservatives it sent the following response “thank you for contacting jpmorgan chase  co investor relations” said the bank when asked to take the survey according to an email “unfortunately we must decline completing this survey as we do not believe the organization is appropriately aligned with jpmc’s diversity initatives sic and direction” jpmorgan says that response was a mistake “we recently learned that the survey was emailed to a mailbox in 2021 that doesn’t generally receive surveys and without proper reviews the request was declined” the spokesperson said in a statement “we are actively considering participating in the survey in its 2023 round” the spokesperson said “and are shoring up our processes for reviewing and whether or not we respond to the myriad survey requests we receive each year from around the world” the letters are part of a broader effort to target financial institutions oklahoma last week banned 13 financial institutions from doing business with the state for environmental policies that the state said amounted to a “boycott” of its fossilfuel businesses a significant source of jobs in the state such moves can come with significant costs in 2021 texas banned five large financial institutions from underwriting the state’s municipal bond issues in response to the lenders restricting business with firearms or fossilfuel companies the move reduced competition among underwriters driving up costs as a result “texas issuers will incur 300500 million in additional interest on the 318 billion borrowed during the first eight months” after the ban was enacted according to a joint study by the wharton school a business school of the university of pennsylvania and the federal reserve bank of chicago republicans say they are worried institutions like jpmorgan—the us’s largest lender—have grown so large that they can dictate decisions on for instance the environment to their customers and to the communities they serve “everyone is trying to leverage their power to become policy makers” said sean d reyes utah’s attorney general and a signatory of the letter