Why I Divested My Bank Account and You Should Too – The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism

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News > Why I Divested My Bank Account and You Should Too

January 21, 2022

Why I Divested My Bank Account and You Should Too

By Sarah Burke

I couldn’t accept doing business with one of the world’s greatest financiers of fossil fuels.

By Ilana Cohen

A customer uses an ATM at a Bank of America branch office. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

When I recently closed my account at Bank of America, the employee at my local bank branch kindly informed me that “political reasons” were unavailable on the drop-down list of options for explaining a customer account closure. Instead, the best chance I got to share my motivations was a blank box on the feedback survey automatically e-mailed to me after I left the bank, a now-former customer, offering space for any additional comments on my decision.

BoA had served me since I graduated high school and my dad helped me open a bank account before college. At the time, it would have never occurred to me to see where I banked as a deliberate or ethical choice—choosing a bank with branches close to home and my new college campus, and one big enough to be able to provide service virtually wherever I might travel seemed practical, responsible, and well, completely innocuous. Over the next three years, however, as I immersed myself in the fossil fuel divestment and climate justice movements, I found myself increasingly questioning that decision.

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All content © 2025. All Rights Reserved.