OCC Report Reveals Politically Motivated Debanking by Major U.S. Banks

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) found instances of politically motivated debanking among nine major banks the agency supervises. The OCC reviewed nearly 100,000 complaints and 420,000 pages of documents from banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Capital One. The OCC found that the banks largely lacked clear, measurable standards and objective risk-based criteria for assessing reputational risks. The findings build on preliminary findings released in December and detail how political and reputational concerns influenced banking decisions between 2020 and September 2025.

The OCC report says PNC declined a line of credit to a media company in 2021 after employees raised concerns about the company's conservative owners. The report quotes one employee saying the owners held public views "very contrary to PNC's beliefs/values". The report says Capital One declined to serve organizations supporting abortion rights, a public education group whose political arm endorsed Democrats, and a gun rights organization. The report says JPMorgan Chase repeatedly declined commercial services to a conservative retailer between 2021 and 2023. The report says JPMorgan Chase employees later altered internal records to remove references to the retailer's political orientation. The report says Bank of America sought to revive a relationship with a private prison customer after President Trump returned to office, despite little change in the underlying reputational risks.

However, officials could not determine how widespread politically motivated debanking was. The OCC acknowledged that the agency could not comprehensively quantify debanking or the costs to affected customers. Not every case established that political discrimination caused a denial of services. TD Bank raised concerns about an anti-immigration nonprofit's views when considering a federal pandemic relief loan. However, the nonprofit ultimately withdrew the application because the nonprofit did not qualify for the program.

OCC chief Jonathan Gould said the findings provided "irrefutable evidence" that the nation's largest banks had denied services to, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses. Gould said the agency is considering further regulatory and supervisory changes. Gould warned that banks' recent reforms may not go far enough.

Banks are legally required to vet customers for financial crime risks. Decisions that regulators view as political discrimination may also reflect legitimate compliance concerns. The OCC acknowledged that anti-money-laundering requirements can justify denying services. However, the OCC warned that banks could use compliance concerns as a "pretext" for turning away customers for unrelated reasons. Representatives for the banks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has made combating politically motivated debanking a priority of his second term. Trump has accused major banks of denying services to conservatives over their beliefs.