All nine of the largest national banks had policies that could cut off customers over their political or religious views or lawful business, federal bank regulators said in a report released Wednesday.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reviewed JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank and BMO from 2020 through September 2025. The agency said every one of them had such policies during that period.
“Today’s report provides irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould said in the release.
What the review found
- Reputation risk: The OCC said broad “reputation risk” policies had no clear standards and hurt some customers because of their political, religious or social views.
- Whole industries: Banks kept public and private limits on oil and gas, coal, firearms and ammunition, detention facilities, tobacco and e-cigarettes, and digital assets.
- Screening terms: A payment processor owned by JPMorgan, WePay, screened merchants against a term list that at times included “MAGA,” “Make America Great” and “America First.” In February 2021 it closed the account of a merchant selling MAGA merchandise.
- Both directions: The report also cites a bank that in 2023 turned down a public education group because its political arm endorsed only Democrats.
- Scope: Examiners reviewed nearly 100,000 complaints and about 420,000 pages of bank documents.
What comes next
The review grew out of President Donald Trump’s Aug. 7, 2025, executive order on fair access to banking. The OCC released early findings in December 2025 and has since dropped reputation risk from its bank exams.
The report says the banks have changed policies since 2025, but none has fully and publicly acknowledged past decisions or set up a full program to make affected customers whole. Gould said he is “not confident” the banks’ own steps will be enough, and the agency is weighing new rules for the largest banks.
Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents ministries whose accounts were closed, praised the report. Attorney Jeremy Tedesco told The Federalist that reforms may not last “if the political winds shift.” The report notes that all nine banks say they have reassessed how they use reputation risk in customer decisions.
Sources
- OCC news release: OCC Releases Report on Large Banks’ Debanking Activities, Oct. 14, 2026.
- OCC report: Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans (PDF).
- The Federalist: Report: Big Banks Debanked ‘MAGA’ And The Left’s Other Political Enemies, Oct. 15, 2026.
File photo: ajay_suresh / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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