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Federal Regulator Finds Major U.S. Banks Terminated Accounts Over Political and Religious Views
Just the facts
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reviewed approximately 100,000 consumer complaints and hundreds of individual account closure decisions between 2020 and September 2025. Regulators found that the nine largest supervised commercial banks in the United States maintained practices that restricted services based on political beliefs, religious views, or business involvement in sectors like firearms and fossil fuel extraction. Cited examples included payment processor WePay, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase, which terminated accounts of merchants selling items affiliated with Donald Trump before closing operations. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould stated that fair access to standard banking services represents a federal mandate for commercial lenders. In response, banking industry representatives through the Bank Policy Institute noted that financial institutions must balance non-discriminatory customer service with legal requirements to manage fraud and material financial risks.
Why this is news
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a report concluding that the nation's largest financial institutions had internal policies that influenced account closures based on customers' political affiliations and religious beliefs. The review was conducted following a 2025 presidential executive order directing banking watchdogs to assess debanking complaints nationwide.
Sources
This summary is compiled strictly from the original reporting below.