Deutsche Bank AG and Signature Bank, two of Donald Trump’s favorite backers, are pulling out of the billionaire president in the aftermath of last week’s deadly riot at the Capitol.
The German lender has decided to stop doing business with Trump and his company, said two knowledgeable people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations were confidential. Trump owes the Frankfurt-based lender more than $ 300 million.
Signature Bank, the New York lender who has long served his family, is closing two personal accounts in which Trump held about $ 5.3 million, a company spokesman said Monday. It also calls on the president to step down before his term of office officially expires on January 20.
“We believe that the appropriate action will be the resignation of the president of the United States, which is in the best interest of our nation and the American people, ”the bank said in a separate statement Monday.
The lenders are following social media outlets and other companies suspending ties with the president after he encouraged attendees at a rally last week to march to the Capitol, where they stormed the building and cut election college certification. At least five people died in the chaos and its immediate aftermath.
“Yesterday was a dark day for America and our democracy,” Christiana Riley, head of Deutsche Bank Americas, posted a day after the riot on LinkedIn. “We are proud of our constitution and we stand behind those who strive to ensure that the will of the people is upheld and a peaceful transfer of power takes place.”
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Signature bank has served Trump and others in its orbit, including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Michael Cohen. In 2011, the bank appointed Ivanka as a member of the board, but she resigned a few years later. The New York Times reported earlier on Monday that ties were being cut.
“We have never commented on a political issue before and hope never to do that again, ”Signature said in its statement. The bank will not in future do business with members of Congress who voted against the electoral college, the spokesman said.
Deutsche Bank said last month that Trump’s longtime banker has resigned. Rosemary Vrablic, who worked in the private banking division, helped manage Trump’s relationship with the bank, as the German lender lent hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to Trump’s company over several years. That relationship put the lender under pressure from lawmakers and prosecutors for information during Trump’s presidency.
The Trump Organization currently has three more loans worth about $ 300 million outstanding with the bank. They must be paid in 2023 and 2024.
Deutsche Bank has been critically scrutinized about its ties to Trump throughout its presidency. It was so concerned about its announcement after his election, it thought Restructuring the loans, but ultimately decided not to do any new business with him during his presidency, Bloomberg reports.
(Updates to Deutsche Bank CEO’s comment in the sixth paragraph, details on the lender’s relationship with Trump in the last two paragraphs.)