Political Debanking Ran Rampant At America’s Biggest Banks, Federal Probe Alleges
America's largest banks maintained policies that disadvantaged customers over their political beliefs, religious affiliations and lawful business activities, according to a sweeping federal investigation released Wednesday.
America’s largest banks maintained policies that disadvantaged customers over their political beliefs, religious affiliations and lawful Business activities, according to a sweeping federal investigation released Wednesday.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) found that all nine major banks it examined maintained policies between 2020 and September 2025 that could encourage discriminatory banking decisions. The investigation, ordered under President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order, documented instances of both conservative and left-leaning organizations being denied financial services, raising concerns about banks allowing political considerations to override objective financial risks.
The investigation examined JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank and BMO Bank. Regulators reviewed approximately 420,000 pages of bank documents, nearly 100,000 complaints and hundreds of individual banking decisions.
“Today’s report provides irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses,” Comptroller Jonathan Gould said in a statement.
The OCC found that banks relied on subjective reputation-risk policies that allowed employees to consider political affiliations, public controversy and the views of advocacy organizations when deciding whether to provide financial services. Restrictions also affected lawful businesses involved in firearms manufacturing, coal mining, oil and gas production, tobacco and digital assets.
In one instance, PNC declined a line of credit to a media company after employees raised concerns about its owners’ conservative political affiliations. The company was growing financially, and its relationship manager had not identified specific credit concerns at the time, according to the report.