Proposal seeks to ban city business for banks with clients without safe gun sales policies

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Citibank is the first big bank to set restrictions on clients who are in the firearms business. The city of Chicago's Finance Committee Chairman Alderman Ed Burke says all banks who do business with the city should follow Citibank's lead, so Burke has proposed a gun sales ordinance "that would bar any financial institution from doing business with the city if its retail clients have failed to adopt a safe gun sales policy."

The 14th ward Alderman says a safe gun sales policy includes prohibiting the sale of firearms to anyone younger than 21 and to customers who have not passed a background check. It also would bar the sale of bump stocks and high capacity magazines. Illinois' banking industry agrees with the idea in concept but calls the ordinance way too broad. The proposal calls on banks doing business with the city of Chicago to sign an affidavit saying all of its clients comply with a safe guns sales policy.

"The threshold established under this ordinance is far too high a bar for members to pass," said Ben Jackson with the Illinois Bankers Association.

Testifying before the Finance Committee today, Jackson says banks cannot track every client they have throughout the world.

"It would certainly be impossible for a financial institution to determine which customers across multiple lines of business in the country and globally remain in compliance with such as policy," Jackson said.

Burke said he will work with the banks to come up with an intelligent ordinance.

"I think sometimes these financial institutions over react and it takes some time to realize they can indeed be part of a solution, than the problem," he said.