WILMINGTON, Del./NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp is preparing to provide critical financing to Remington Outdoor Co, which makes assault-type rifles, just weeks after the U.S. bank said it would stop financing “military-style” firearms for civilians.
The bank is contributing $43.2 million to a $193 million lending package funded by seven banks, according to court documents, which will help put Remington back on stable footing as it emerges from bankruptcy later this month into an uncertain environment for gun makers.
The package replaces a similar credit facility the banks committed to providing Remington. Both were agreed in late March, before Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, changed its policy to stop financing companies that make military-style guns for civilian use.
Anne Finucane, Bank of America’s vice chair, said in April that the bank had decided on its pledge to help reduce mass shootings, saying in an interview with Bloomberg TV that “it is not our intent to underwrite or finance military-style firearms on a go-forward basis.”
The comment came weeks after a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, triggered a new movement for gun control, led in part by student survivors, increasing pressure on U.S. companies to seek to distance themselves from the firearms industry.
Finucane in the Bloomberg TV interview said that Bank of America was in discussions with its gun-manufacturing clients following the change, but did not give details. She did not mention Remington.
Bank of America’s plans to go ahead with the credit facility following its change of policy in April have not previously been reported.
Bank of America said it does not
