CNBC Excerpt: Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan Speaks with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin on 'Power Lunch' Today

CNBC

a day ago

WHEN: Today, Tuesday, August 5, 2025
WHERE: CNBC's "Power Lunch"
Following is an excerpt from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan on CNBC's "Power Lunch" (M-F, 2PM-3PM ET) today, Tuesday, August 5. Following is video of CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/08/05/bank-of-america-ceo-responds-to-trumps-claim-he-was-rejected-as-a-customer.html.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
MOYNIHAN ON PRESIDENT TRUMP'S COMMENTS DURING "SQUAWK BOX" INTERVIEW
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Good morning to you. I should say really good afternoon. Joining me right here in Aspen is Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan and I originally planned to talk to you about the economy. I still do, but I have something that was not on my bingo card this morning because we talked to President Trump on "Squawk Box" about this executive order that he's planning around banks, who he thinks discriminated against conservatives. And your name came up, and so I just wanted to show you what he said and wanted to get your reaction to that.
SOUND OF PRESIDENT TRUMP ON "SQUAWK BOX:" What happens is I call up Bank of America routinely because when I was president, this was after I got out by the way, I call up Bank of America routinely, and I speak to him, and I speak to a couple of people, and they have zero interest. Brian was kissing my ass when I was president, and when I called him after I was president to deposit a billion dollars plus and a lot of other things, more importantly, to open accounts, and he said, "We can't do it. No, we can't do it."
SORKIN: You heard it? Were you watching TV when this was happening?
BRIAN MOYNIHAN: So I got up early because we're on East Coast time I was I was working out, and I was watching your wonderful show, and he came on, and I'm telling you, I'm still trying to unsee some of the visuals that he created with his commentary. But look, the President's after the right thing, which is the laws, rules and regulations around our industry became used to cause things to happen. This was BSA, AML, whether it's KYC, whether it's reputational risk, and you heard Tim Scott quote about it. It is right to go look at these rules, because at the end of day, they are causing decisions to be made that can be looked at in retrospect differently. We should get these rules right. So our company, my colleagues' companies, the industry, has been working with the Treasury administration today in this administration, trying to figure out how to get these rules balanced so that we're not subject to this swing back and forth in this after the fact. Look, so the President's on the right issue. He asked me about it in Davos, we were there. He asked me, he talked about it this morning, and I welcome getting this fixed. At the end of day, we bank 70 million consumers, more small business than anybody else. 12 million small business more middle market companies than, we bank everybody. But the reality is, we want to make sure that the rules and regulations don't cause decisions to be made that then are looked at in the aftermath and dealt differently.
SORKIN: Do you worry though at all about either your your firm or other banks a form of sort of retribution? I mean, one of the things we did see was in the context of, for example, the law firms.
MOYNIHAN: So I look, at the other day, we'll get through this and get some rules written, and then we can follow them and let let's let it all play out. But I think that the President is on the right issue, which is, we got to stop the regulars behind the scenes of whip sawing back and forth and forcing our companies, and companies like ours to make decisions which Congress hasn't passed on or he hasn't passed on.