OCC Identifies Nine Major Banks That Restricted Services Over Political or Religious Beliefs
A U.S. regulatory review prompted by President Donald Trump found that nine major banks, including Canadian lenders TD and BMO, denied or limited financial services to customers based on political or religious beliefs between 2020 and 2025. No penalties were announced, but further regulatory changes are under assessment.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) identified nine major banks that maintained practices denying or limiting access to financial services due to customers' political or religious beliefs between 2020 and 2025. The OCC launched its review after President Donald Trump requested an investigation into debanking practices.
The nine institutions named in the report are Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Bank of Montreal (BMO), JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bancorp, Capital One Financial Corp., and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould stated that the report provides evidence that large banks have denied, debanked, and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses.
The OCC found that broad reputational-risk policies lacked clear standards and disadvantaged customers based on political, religious, or social views. Affected industries included oil and gas, coal, firearms, and digital assets. The report cited specific examples involving the named banks. BMO evaluated risks associated with a customer manufacturing empty firearm magazines, requiring monitoring and sales thresholds despite approving the relationship. TD required escalation of loan requests from a non-profit organization promoting pro-life views because its national director had a high political and media profile. Payment processor WePay, used by JPMorgan, closed the account of a merchant selling MAGA merchandise in 2021, citing promotion of hate or violence; JPMorgan later wound down the business.
In response to the findings, BMO referred media inquiries to the Bank Policy Institute, which supported efforts to prioritize material financial risk over reputational risk. TD did not respond to a request for comment regarding the OCC's findings. JPMorgan stated that its policies prohibit discrimination based on political or religious views and described the OCC's findings as involving a limited number of historical interactions among nearly 90 million customers.
The OCC did not announce penalties but is assessing further regulatory and supervisory changes to prevent future issues. Separately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stated it will fully investigate whether the lenders complied with federal consumer financial laws and address any harm caused to banking customers.