U.S. Regulator Flags TD and BMO in Report on Bank Discrimination Practices
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a report identifying nine major banks, including Canada's TD and BMO, for policies between 2020 and 2025 that may have influenced the denial of financial services based on political or religious beliefs. The Canadian lenders were not accused of outright refusing service but were flagged for risk assessment practices targeting specific groups.
The Washington-based Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a report on Wednesday identifying nine of the largest retail banks it supervises as having policies or practices between 2020 and 2025 that may have required, encouraged, or otherwise influenced the institutions to deny or limit access to financial services to Americans because of their political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities.
The review was initiated by an Aug. 7, 2025, executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump requesting an investigation into alleged discrimination. The report landed just before crucial midterm elections in the United States. The nine banks named in the findings are JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and BMO Bank.
Canadian institutions TD and BMO are among the nine lenders identified as having “denied, debanked and discriminated” against right-wing U.S. customers and businesses. However, the 45-page report does not accuse the Canadian banks of outright “debanking” or refusing to serve a client. Instead, they are flagged for having policies or practices that could invite additional scrutiny or assign a higher risk profile to certain groups. BMO is named six times in the document, while there are 14 references to TD.
In one instance involving BMO, following a 2022 credit request by a customer that manufactured empty firearm magazines, the bank evaluated the reputational risk under its environmental and social financing guidelines. BMO established a quarterly trigger to ensure trailing twelve-month tactical sales remained below 30 per cent of total sales.
TD is named in two instances where the OCC accuses banks of associating a customer’s political, religious, or social views with a higher level of risk, though the report noted the Canadian bank did not ultimately deny service on such grounds. In one example, a loan request from a nonprofit organization promoting pro-life views required escalation to TD’s reputational risk committee, and the organization’s national director was flagged as having a “high political and media profile.” In another case from February 2021, TD assessed extending a loan for a nonprofit organization promoting anti-immigration positions, assigning a ‘High’ reputation risk rating due to controversy surrounding its founder and media coverage.
Jeff Roman, a spokesperson for Bank of Montreal, referred requests for comment to a statement from the Bank Policy Institute supporting fair access to banking services. TD has not responded to a request for comment regarding the OCC report.
The OCC possesses broad powers to impose penalties, though specific sanctions against TD and BMO were not detailed in the report. Demonstrating its enforcement authority, the OCC imposed a $750-million assessment against Bank of America on Tuesday for deficient anti-money laundering compliance.