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Bank of America will stop lending money to private prison operators

The bank joins JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., which both had already halted loans to the industry.
Credit: AP

Bank of America says it will stop lending to companies that operate private prisons and detention centers. 

The announcement comes from Vice Chairman Anne Finucane who told Bloomberg that Bank of America has "decided to exit the relationship" between the bank and private prison operators. 

“We’ve done our due diligence that we said we would do at the annual meeting, and this is the decision we’ve made," Finuncane said. 

Finuncane added that the bank will stop the transactions as soon as it can. 

CoreCivic, one of the largest private-prison companies, told Bloomberg that Bank of America's decision was based on politics.

“We care deeply about doing business in an ethical, responsible way,” CoreCivic spokesman Steven Owens said. "This was clearly not a fair, transparent and genuine dialogue about corrections and detention.”

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. have already halted loans to the industry.

Earlier this week, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts tweeted about how she is against private prison companies profiting off of detained immigrants. 

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