The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the federal supervisor of national banks in the US, has concluded that each of the nine largest lenders under its oversight operated policies that restricted access to financial services on political, religious or sector-specific grounds between 2020 and September 2025.
The review covered JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank and BMO Bank. The regulator carried out the work under the President’s Executive Order, “Guaranteeing Fair Access to Banking for All Americans”.
Its aim was to establish whether internal rules or practices at these institutions had pushed staff to refuse or curtail services to customers because of their beliefs or legally permitted commercial activities.
According to the findings, sweeping reputation risk frameworks without defined standards or objective, risk-based tests put some Americans at a disadvantage because of their political, religious or social views, or because of the lawful businesses they ran. The OCC also identified both published and internal policies that limited banking access for whole industries.
These included oil and gas exploration, coal mining and coal-fired power generation, firearms and ammunition production or distribution, the building or running of detention facilities, tobacco and e-cigarette manufacturing, distribution or online sales, and digital asset activities.
To build its case, the regulator examined close to 100,000 complaints submitted to institutions it oversees. It also obtained roughly 50,000 documents from the nine banks, totalling around 420,000 pages, covering their policies, procedures, practices and decisions on individual customers.
The OCC launched the review of its nine biggest banks by assets in September 2025 and published initial conclusions in December 2025.
The regulator has already removed reputation risk from its bank examinations, clarified how improper debanking factors into licensing reviews and some examinations, and upgraded the way it receives and assesses complaints.
Further work is under way. The OCC is weighing measures to stop banks from discriminating against existing or prospective customers over political or religious beliefs, and to tackle the role reputation risk plays in lending and account decisions.
OCC comptroller of the currency Jonathan V. Gould said, “Today’s report provides irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses. Americans should have access to financial services regardless of their beliefs, affiliations, or political views. Fair access to financial services is not a mantra—it is a mandate. The Trump Administration is committed to ending the weaponization of finance against hardworking Americans, once and for all.”
Gould also said, “Notwithstanding certain efforts by the largest banks to rein in these practices, I am not confident that they will be enough. Accordingly, the OCC will be assessing further changes to the regulatory and supervisory framework applicable to the largest banks to reduce the likelihood of these harmful practices recurring in the future.”
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