OCC Report Finds Nine Largest Banks Restricted Services Based on Political, Religious, and Lawful Business Views

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a report Wednesday finding that the nine largest national banks it supervises maintained policies between 2020 and September 2025 that restricted access to financial services based on customers’ political, religious, or social views or on otherwise lawful business activities.

The banks examined were JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank, and BMO Bank. Comptroller Jonathan Gould said the report provides “irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses.”

The supervisory review, conducted under President Trump’s executive order guaranteeing fair access to banking, examined nearly 100,000 complaints and approximately 420,000 pages of bank documents. All nine banks had policies allowing reputation risk, public opinion, or social pressures to influence decisions on who received services.

Among the examples cited, JPMorgan Chase’s former payment processor WePay closed accounts of merchants selling Trump and Make America Great Again merchandise. Its screening system flagged terms including “MAGA,” “Make America Great,” and “America First.” WePay also terminated accounts tied to conservative religious organizations, including one labeled extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. JPMorgan said WePay’s practices failed to meet its standards and were corrected before the operation was discontinued.

PNC denied a line of credit to a media company after an employee noted that its owners publicly expressed opinions “very contrary to PNC’s beliefs/values.” Wells Fargo pressured a payment processor to drop a religious nonprofit because of its position on same-sex marriage and declined loans to firearms businesses amid concerns about potential Biden administration pressure. Bank of America restricted relationships with private-prison companies. Other banks limited services to businesses in oil and gas, coal, firearms, and digital assets.

The report also identified instances involving liberal organizations. Capital One declined services to an abortion-rights organization and a gun-rights group over concerns about appearing to endorse their positions. The OCC said it could not determine the full extent of discriminatory debanking or quantify its financial consequences. All nine banks reported revising their policies, though Gould said the changes may be insufficient.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a separate investigation into whether the banks violated federal consumer financial laws. Acting CFPB Director Mark Paoletta said it is “appalling that these banks targeted American consumers for their political, social, or religious beliefs.” Gould stated that the Trump administration would consider additional regulatory action and that “fair access to financial services is not a mantra — it is a mandate.”

The OCC found that broad reputation-risk policies, lacking clear and objective standards, allowed political considerations to influence who banks deemed worthy of financial services. Entire industries, including coal mining, firearms manufacturing, and tobacco-related businesses, faced restrictions on financing or services.