On Wednesday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a new report titled “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,” and its findings are troubling. The 47-page report revealed that between 2020 and 2025, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank, and BMO Bank discriminated against and denied credit and banking services to groups that were "disfavored" by the Biden administration. (Although the review covered banking practices from 2020 through September 2025, spanning both Trump administrations and the Biden administration, much of that period fell during Biden's presidency.)
Many conservatives and right-of-center organizations may well be considering a transfer of their financial services, if they have not done so already.
Major banks closed accounts and refused credit to MAGA merchants, pro-life causes, religious groups, conservative organizations and sectors disfavored by the Biden administration, such as firearms, oil and gas, and private prisons, a bombshell report from the federal banking regulator has found.
The Debanking Review by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) investigated 100,000 complaints and scrutinized 50,000 internal bank records to reveal how customers were “debanked” based purely on their political, social, or religious beliefs.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank, and BMO Bank were found to have discriminated against American consumers, citing “reputation risk” as a reason to deny service between 2020 and 2025.
The OCC is an independent bureau housed within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks and federal thrift institutions, as well as the federally licensed branches and agencies of foreign banks within the United States. The OCC announced this report and its findings in a Wednesday press release:
The OCC conducted its supervisory review in accordance with the President’s Executive Order, “Guaranteeing Fair Access to Banking for All Americans,” to determine whether these banks’ policies or practices may have required, encouraged, or otherwise influenced banks to deny or limit access to financial services to Americans because of their political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities. The OCC’s findings show that, between 2020 and September 2025, all nine banks had such policies.
“Today’s report provides irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses,” said Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould. “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.”
From its investigation, the OCC found that these banks specifically targeted Christian organizations and those that supported traditional family values, and gave preference to organizations that favored abortion and LGBTQ issues.
The banks also restricted financing for “disfavored” industries such as firearms makers and retailers, Arctic oil and gas, coal, detention facilities, tobacco and e-cigarettes.
Negative press, protests, criticism from advocacy groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, and reprisals from regulators or politicians were cited as the reputation risks most feared by the banks.
JPMorgan Chase, the bank that admitted it debanked President Donald Trump, appears to be an egregious offender once again, particularly to those who used its WePay payment processing. According to the report's findings, they closed the account of a religious organization because it had been designated an “extremist hate group” by the SPLC.
Among the examples in the report is JPMorgan Chase’s payment operation, WePay, closing the account of a merchant that sold merchandise promoting President Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) brand, claiming it “promote[d] hate, violence, or racial intolerance.”
The bank’s internal screening system regularly flagged terms such as “MAGA,” “Make America Great,” and “America First” that appeared in merchants’ customer profiles, websites, and transaction information. Several of the terms used to find “violations” were added after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
WePay also closed accounts for a merchant selling “conservative/republican t-shirts, hats, etc.” Merchandise that raised “red flags” included a “Biden-Illegitimate-Tshirt,” “The-Big-Lie-Sticker”, and a “Trump-Won” flag.
PNC Bank was also a repeat offender.
PNC refused to issue a line of credit to a successful media company because the bank’s environmental and social governance group noted that one owner had a foundation that “has funded several Christian conservative groups, including several identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.” Another owner was branded “a conservative political commentator.”
The bank employee who recommended the refusal wrote: “I think it becomes really difficult to justify aligning ourselves with a company whose owners have built very public personas around opinions very contrary to PNC’s beliefs/values.”
Then there is Wells Fargo, which has already been under investigation by 16 state attorneys general for its debanking and discriminatory practices. According to the OCC report, the bank pressured a payment processor to terminate a religious nonprofit because of its views on same-sex marriage. They also refused to lend money to two firearms businesses because the employees feared repercussions from the Biden administration and criticism from gun control activists and certain members of Congress.
“Under the Biden administration, banks could face greater supervisory pressure to move away from lending to the firearms industry,” noted a reputation risk review of a prospective firearms client.
While all nine banks have claimed to the OCC that they have since revised their practices to promote fairness, the OCC confirmed in its press release that they do not trust the banks to do cleanup on Aisle 7. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould announced that the OCC plans to investigate further and work with the banks to enact its own supervisory framework and regulatory structures to ensure fair banking practices for all Americans.
The OCC’s broader work to promote fair access to financial services and advance objective and risk-based banking decisions remains ongoing. The OCC is considering actions to prevent banks from discriminating against customers or prospective customers on the basis of their political or religious beliefs and to address the problematic role of reputation risk in bank decision-making.
"Notwithstanding certain efforts by the largest banks to rein in these practices, I am not confident that they will be enough," Comptroller Gould said. "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.”
The full 47-page "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans” report can be found here.