Big Banks, Credit Card Companies on Track to Monitor, Flag Gun Purchases

At the recent New York Times DealBook conference, Amalgamated Bank CEO Priscilla Sims Brown said they are working to create a Merchant Category Code (MCC) for “detection scenarios” that would require banks to file “Suspicious Activity” reports with authorities if triggered. 

The International Organization for Standardization approved a new code for banks to use in firearm transactions this past Fall. Amalgamated states the policy would be similar to how they detect fraud.

“We’re at the very early stages of this – this particular code just got approved in October – so those detection scenarios are still being brought together,” Brown said. “But as this is implemented, those scenarios will be used.” 

While several of the major payment processors have pledged to implement the new code, Visa believes it will be ineffective. According to Visa, they don’t have access to what the client is purchasing, so they’d have no idea whether the cardholder bought a rifle or camping gear. 

SEE ALSO: Everytown Celebrates New Banking Codes to Track Gun Purchases, Monitor Gun Owners  

Former New York Police fraud investigator, Kevin Sullivan, doesn’t agree with Visa’s criticism. 

“Banks will complain this is the government’s job and it’s not our job, but you know what? They are the only ones with the ability to do this,” Sullivan said to the New York Times in 2018 after the Pulse Night Club shooting in Florida.

Sullivan currently consults with banks as the president of the Anti-Money Laundering Training Academy. 

While Brown and Sullivan both seem to be on board with banks tracking gun purchases, Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, led the charge against the MCC in a letter to the banking industry, signed by 100 republican lawmakers. 

“This is a transparent attempt to chill the exercise of constitutionally protected rights and to circumvent existing legal restrictions on the creation of firearm registries by the government,” reads the letter, dated Sept. 14, 2022. 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) also penned a letter in Sept. addressed to the heads of the largest credit card companies in the world, stating the new system is “ripe for abuse” and would negatively impact minority groups.

An excerpt from Sen. Hawley’s letter:

Too often, companies have abused their market power to target the constitutional rights of conservatives and others with minority viewpoints. Big Tech companies systematically deplatformed those who sought to discuss the efficacy of masks and vaccines or raise concerns about the integrity of our elections. The crowdfunding platform GoFundMe blocked donations to the Canadian “Freedom Rally” trucker convoy.2 And WePay, a payment processor subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase—the largest bank in the United States—refused to do business with Missouri conservatives seeking to host an event with Donald Trump, Jr. Your proposal to track firearm-related purchases further threatens Americans who are simply exercising their constitutional rights.

In spite of the pushback, Brown seems confident that the MCC will move toward implementation. 

“What I’m hearing from other banks is that they have been honoring this process and this system, filing Suspicious Activity Reports across a myriad of industries to stop a myriad of crimes, or at least alert authorities of them,” she said. “And I have every confidence that banks are going to do the same thing here.”

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