Trump-ordered review faults nine large banks over debanking policies
The OCC said all nine banks in its review had policies between 2020 and September 2025 that could restrict services based on political or religious beliefs or lawful business activity.
A review ordered under President Donald Trump's fair-banking executive order found that all nine of the largest national banks supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had policies that could restrict financial services on subjective grounds, the regulator announced Wednesday, October 14, 2026.
The OCC said the policies were in place at some point between 2020 and September 2025 and could have limited services because of customers' political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities. The findings are the regulator's conclusions from a supervisory review; they do not establish that every account closure was politically motivated, and the OCC announced no penalties with the report.
What the OCC found
The review covered JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank and BMO Bank. According to the OCC, broad reputation-risk policies at the institutions often lacked measurable standards and objective risk criteria. The agency said those frameworks disadvantaged some customers based on political, religious or social views, or because they operated lawful businesses that banks considered controversial.
The regulator identified sector restrictions involving oil and gas exploration, coal mining and coal-fired power, firearms and ammunition, detention facilities, tobacco and e-cigarettes, and digital assets. It said it examined nearly 100,000 complaints to regulated institutions and about 50,000 documents totaling roughly 420,000 pages.
The OCC did not publish customer names or a bank-by-bank accounting of individual decisions in its news release. Its report describes policies and examples across the group, making the finding broader than a determination that any one disputed closure violated a specific law.
Trump's role in the review
Trump directed federal banking regulators in an August 7, 2025, executive order to identify and address what the White House called politicized or unlawful debanking. The order told regulators to review complaint data and supervisory information for decisions tied to political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities.
The OCC began its large-bank review in September 2025 and issued preliminary findings that December. Wednesday's report is the completed review under that order. Comptroller Jonathan Gould said the administration considers fair access a mandate and that the agency is evaluating further changes to its supervisory and regulatory framework.
The issue also intersects with Trump's personal dispute with the banking industry. Earlier in 2026, he sued JPMorgan Chase and chief executive Jamie Dimon for $5 billion, alleging that the bank closed his accounts for political reasons. JPMorgan has denied discriminating on political or religious grounds and moved on Tuesday to dismiss the lawsuit. Trump has separately accused Bank of America of denying him services; the bank has said it does not discuss client matters.
Banks dispute political motive
Large banks have generally argued that account restrictions reflect legal, financial, compliance or reputational risks rather than customers' politics. A JPMorgan spokesperson told Reuters that the bank prohibits political and religious discrimination, while saying years of regulatory second-guessing had encouraged excessive caution and that the system needed clearer rules.
That response highlights the central dispute. The OCC says subjective reputation standards permitted impermissible considerations to influence access. Banks say government expectations around money laundering, sanctions and other compliance risks have sometimes pushed them away from customers without clear guidance.
The report does not end that argument. The OCC said it would work with other regulators to examine how anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism-finance requirements may have contributed to debanking and would consider appropriate action. Gould also said changes already made by the banks might not be enough to prevent the practices from recurring.
For now, the concrete action is a public regulatory finding, not a fine or enforcement order. Any later rule changes, supervisory directives or case-specific penalties would be separate developments and would determine how far the Trump administration turns the review into binding requirements for banks.
Sources and image credit
Primary records: OCC news release, full OCC report and Trump's August 7, 2025 executive order. Independent reporting and bank response: Reuters, syndicated by SRN News.
Image: MBisanz (Matthew Bisanz), former Office of the Comptroller of the Currency headquarters sign, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped to 16:9.