South Carolina H 3433: Equality in Financial Services Act

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 3433 Text of Previous Version (Dec. 06, 2024) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 3433

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ENACTING THE 
"EQUALITY IN FINANCIAL SERVICES ACT" BY ADDING CHAPTER 31 TO TITLE 37 SO AS TO 
PROVIDE DEFINITIONS, PROVIDE THAT A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION MAY NOT DISCRIMINATE 
IN THE PROVISION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES, AND TO PROVIDE REMEDIES.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the "Equality in Financial Services Act."

SECTION 2. (A) Obtaining 
access to financial services is a basic requirement for a person to 
meaningfully participate in South Carolina's marketplace.

 (B) On account of 
their fundamental role in the marketplace, the South Carolina and United States

governments have given 
financial institutions significant privileges and have enacted state and 
federal laws that guarantee access to certain financial services without 
discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, and other 
factors.

 (C) New banks and 
other financial institutions face significant barriers to entry that reduce the 
competitiveness of the market and allow existing institutions to wield 
significant power.

 (D) Financial 
institutions should not act as de facto regulators of private conduct by 
denying financial services based on a person's religious exercise, association, 
speech, social views, or participation in a particular industry.

 (E) Financial 
institutions have a responsibility to make decisions about whether to provide a 
person with financial services on the basis of impartial criteria free from 
discrimination or favoritism based on the above factors.

 (F) Financial 
institutions also have a responsibility to disclose the conditions under which 
they will deny financial services, and if they deny financial services, to 
provide upon request a truthful and complete explanation to the person as to 
why financial services were denied.

 (G) Financial 
institutions face increasing internal and external pressures to impede 
otherwise lawful commerce based on a person's religious exercise, associations, 
speech, social views, or participation in particular industries, and to do so 
covertly, without informing the person or the public why services were or will 
be denied.

 (H) When financial 
institutions omit material information about when they will deny financial 
services or why they denied financial services to a person, this lack of 
transparency harms specific persons and the general marketplace.

 (I) This kind of 
deception and unfair discrimination in the provision of financial services 
threatens the economy, security, and the soundness of banking and other 
financial markets in South Carolina.

 (J) These 
deceptive and unfairly discriminatory practices threaten the ability of South 
Carolina's citizens to speak freely as part of the democratic process and to 
live freely according to the dictates of their conscience, and these practices 
also violate the public trust.

SECTION 3. Title 37 of the S.C. Code is amended by adding:

CHAPTER 31

Equality in Financial Services

 Section 
37-31-10. (A) As used in this 
chapter:

 (1) 
"Discriminate in the provision of financial services" means utilizing a social 
credit score to directly or indirectly decline to provide full and equal 
enjoyment in the provision of financial services, and includes refusing to 
provide, terminating, or restricting financial services.

 (2) 
"Financial institution" means a bank that has total assets over one hundred 
billion dollars or a payment processor, credit card company, credit card 
network, payment network, payment service provider, or payment gateway that has 
processed more than one hundred billion dollars in transactions in the last 
calendar year. A financial institution includes any affiliate or subsidiary 
company, even if that company is also a financial institution.

 (3) 
"Financial service" means any financial product or service offered by a 
financial institution.

 (4) 
"Person" means any individual, partnership, association, joint stock company, 
trust, corporation, nonprofit organization, or other business or legal entity.

 (5) 
"Protected from government interference" refers to any speech, religious 
exercise, association, expression, or conduct that is protected by the First 
Amendment other than activities that the Supreme Court of the United States has 
expressly held are unprotected as of the date of this legislation, such as 
obscenity, fraud, incitement, true threats, fighting words, or defamation.

 (6)(a) "Social credit score" means any 
analysis, rating, scoring, list, or tabulation that evaluates any of the 
following:

 (i) 
any person's e