In November, Verbund Volksbank OWL and Volksbank in Ostwestfalen, both co-operative banks owned by their members rather than external shareholders, terminated the accounts of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) chapter in North Rhine-Westphalia. The right-wing party denounced the decision as "politically motivated."

Last July, Berliner Volksbank similarly shut down AfD's donations account.

AfD.

[–] SerialExperimentsGay@hexbear.net 11 points 1 day ago

The difference here being that these only affected two states (and ones in which the AfD traditionally performs worse than average), and especially that the AfD could then just move to another bank. Both DKP and Rote Hilfe are facing serious organisational problems because of this, such as no longer being able to pay employees, receiving donations or in the case of Rote Hilfe especially paying for the legal counsel and other aid that they offer to political prisoners.

And unlike these AfD chapters, they have not yet been able to open a new account anywhere else, most likely because they have been put on some anti-terror blacklist that all banks in Europe use as a reference to avoid liability. This isn't just two banks making that decision, this is coming from higher up. In case of Rote Hilfe, the banks have already cited "new regulations and terms of service" as reason for the debanking.

[–] RedSturgeon@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'm guessing they mean NPD? Although I would not be surprised if they haven't been, ofc I'm ignoring the elephant in the room.

Edit: They do seem to be going after the most militant members in the AfD too, not that it'd do much, but it's what you'd expect from "apolitical centrists."

They will just as quickly re-instate any accounts that are beneficial to them at the current moment. They mostly care about "stability" aka. keeping their wealth.