OCC Details Debanking Claims at Nine Major Banks

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has detailed allegations of bank debanking involving customer decisions and policies from 2020 through 2025. Banking Dive headlined its coverage “OCC blasts debanking instances.” In its 47-page report released Wednesday, the regulator said those practices may have required, encouraged or otherwise influenced service denials based on customers’ political or religious leanings.

The OCC’s follow-up names JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, PNC, Capital One, TD and BMO. Comptroller Jonathan Gould said the report provides “irrefutable evidence” that large banks denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses. The report follows a preliminary review released last December.

The findings concern public and nonpublic policies restricting services to certain industries, plus individual customer decisions. The OCC said broad reputational-risk policies lacked clear standards and objective, risk-based criteria, disadvantaging some Americans. It said its review covered nearly 100,000 complaints submitted to regulated institutions and roughly 420,000 pages of documents on policies, procedures, practices and customer decisions.

OCC Blasts Debanking Instances Across Different Causes

The report described examples involving organizations with differing political positions. The OCC said JPMorgan repeatedly denied services to a conservative-leaning retailer from 2021 to 2023. In a quoted bank document, an employee wrote that the retailer’s “extreme clients” might become more mainstream and more appropriate for the bank if far-right competitors served them.

TD, the OCC said, denied a COVID-era emergency loan to a nonprofit that took an anti-immigration stance. The regulator asserted that the nonprofit’s status as a “hate group,” as described by the Southern Poverty Law Center, influenced the denial.

The OCC also alleged that Capital One rejected an organization supporting reproductive rights, including abortion access. The agency cited a risk employee’s assessment that the organization’s “[c]ontributions to politicians are about 95% Democrat.” The examples involve organizations on different sides of political issues.

The report comes amid scrutiny of how banks handle politically sensitive customers and industries. A previous Congressional payment hearing examined the regulatory treatment of banks and payment platforms, while another report tracked fintech investment concentration among mature companies. Banks are also investing in digital banking infrastructure, including a tokenized deposit initiative. These articles offer context, but do not address the OCC’s findings.

JPMorgan said its policies prohibit discrimination based on political or religious views. It described the report’s examples as “a limited number of historical interactions” and said it had “improved the way we do business.” The bank also said years in a regulatory environment that second-guessed decisions contributed to caution across the industry, adding, “That system needs fixing.” Those statements represent the bank’s response, while the OCC’s report presents the regulator’s conclusions.

OCC Signals More Review of Bank Oversight

Gould said the report would not end the OCC’s work. He was not confident that efforts by the largest banks to rein in the practices would be enough. The OCC will assess further changes to its regulatory and supervisory framework, he said, to reduce the likelihood of harmful practices recurring.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a separate review on Wednesday. It said it would investigate whether institutions featured in the OCC report, along with others, complied with federal consumer financial laws and would take appropriate action. The bureau said it was reviewing consumer complaints and supervisory and enforcement data for evidence of wrongful debanking.

CFPB Acting Director Mark Paoletta criticized the banks in a statement, alleging that they targeted consumers for political, social or religious beliefs. His remarks were his position; the agency’s review will examine complaints and other data.

The OCC’s report points to further regulatory scrutiny, but Gould framed additional oversight changes as an assessment still to come. The CFPB likewise described an investigation underway. The agencies’ next steps will determine how they address the policies and customer decisions identified in the report.