First National Bank of Omaha, Neb., announced Feb. 22 it will no longer issue an NRA branded Visa card. The company declined to say when its contract with the NRA expired, but said it would not renew its licensing agreement at that time.
“Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA. As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card,” read a statement posted on the bank’s Twitter feed.
The announcement came after the website, ThinkProgress, listed the bank among several other companies as one that supports the NRA or offers discounts to NRA members.
A few days earlier, Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist for the New York Times, suggested credit card companies and banks that tout corporate responsibility could extend that ethic to limiting credit access for gun sales, noting PayPal, Square, Stripe and Apple Pay do not allow their services to be used for the sale of firearms. Sorkin cited the precedent of the ban on using credit cards to purchase Bitcoin, enacted by JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America.
In an editorial response to Sorkin’s column, the American Banker’s Rob Blackwell argued it wasn’t up to financial companies to act where Congress fails to. “…such action should fall to the president and lawmakers, not big banks and credit card firms,” Blackwell wrote.
The move by FNB doesn’t impact a credit card holder’s ability to purchase firearms. It is a distancing of its brand from the NRA brand, which is under attack across social media sites with #BoycottNRA trending.
The backlash from NRA supporters is already evident in FNB’s social media feeds. Supporters seeking more stringent gun laws celebrated FNB’s decision.
FNB is the nation’s largest privately-owned bank holding company.