U.S. lenders face regulatory fallout from OCC debanking review

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U.S. lenders face OCC debanking review

Highlights

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is set to release findings in coming weeks regarding whether JPMorgan, Bank of America, and others denied services for religious or political reasons.
The OCC review, which covers nine large banks and around 100,000 complaints from 2020–2023, could lead to formal sanctions, ranging from private notices to public enforcement actions with penalties.
Political and legal pressure increases for major U.S. banks as the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington launches its own debanking probe and lawsuits from Donald Trump and related businesses proceed.

OCC review nears findings on bank account closures

As reported by Reuters, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is poised to publish in coming weeks the findings of a supervisory review into whether lenders including JPMorgan and Bank of America denied or cut off services for religious or political reasons. People familiar with the matter say the review also examines whether banks withheld services from conservative-aligned industries such as fossil fuels, firearms and crypto.

In December, the OCC published a preliminary report saying nine large banks had policies from 2020 to 2023 that restricted services to some industries and groups or imposed excessive risk-management screening, often to avoid reputational risk. The agency said at that time it was reviewing those policies and about 100,000 related complaints.

Since then, the regulator has carried out multiple rounds of inquiries, with some lenders still responding in recent weeks. According to people with knowledge of the process, the questions center on how banks decide to provide or revoke services and are highly detailed.

The full review is expected to identify specific banks and cases, and some matters could be escalated to formal sanctions. Those outcomes could range from private supervisory notices requiring policy changes to public enforcement actions that would likely be resolved with penalties.

Political pressure broadens risks for major banks

The OCC has said it is also scrutinizing Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Capital One, U.S. Bank, PNC, TD Bank and BMO Bank, while spokespersons for the nine banks decline to comment. Banks say accounts are closed for reasons such as unusual activity, paperwork issues or misuse of the account, and not because of political views.

The issue remains politically charged as Republicans continue to press Wall Street over what they describe as discriminatory left-leaning policies. President Donald Trump says he has personally had accounts closed for political reasons, and in January 2025 he accused JPMorgan and Bank of America of discriminating against conservatives; he and affiliated businesses are also suing JPMorgan and Capital One over account closures, accusations the banks deny.

The scrutiny extends beyond the OCC. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington is also probing lenders over debanking, and The Wall Street Journal first reported that investigation last week.

Speaking to lawmakers this month, Comptroller Jonathan Gould said the agency is investigating debanking and exploring a possible legal theory of liability. Sam Brownback, who leads the National Committee for Religious Freedom, has also said JPMorgan closed an account linked to him in 2022 on religious grounds, while JPMorgan says the closure stemmed from inadequate information.

In our earlier coverage of the rollout of Trump Accounts, we explained how the Treasury plans to seed eligible children’s tax-deferred investment accounts with a one-time $1,000 deposit invested in broad U.S. equity funds. We also noted experts’ concerns that, without strong participation and follow-on contributions from lower-income families, the program may do little to narrow the wealth gap despite millions of early enrollments.

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