The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) found on 14 October that nine of the country’s largest banks had policies that allowed political, religious and social considerations to influence access to financial services, but stopped short of imposing penalties.

The regulator’s review examined nearly 100,000 complaints and approximately 420,000 pages of documents covering banks’ policies and customer decisions between 2020 and September 2025. It concluded that all nine lenders had used reputation risk policies lacking clear, objective criteria that could disadvantage customers because of their beliefs or lawful business activities.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said banks should make decisions based on financial risk rather than political preferences. “Fair access to financial services is not a mantra, it is a mandate,” he said, according to the OCC.

The review covered JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank and BMO Bank. Together, the institutions held a majority of assets at commercial banks supervised by the OCC when the investigation began in September 2025, following an executive order from President Donald Trump directing regulators to examine alleged politically motivated debanking.

The OCC identified cases involving customers and organisations across the political spectrum. JPMorgan subsidiary WePay closed accounts belonging to merchants selling Donald Trump and conservative merchandise, with an internal screening list including terms such as “MAGA” and “America First”. The regulator found neither WePay nor JPMorgan had formal written standards defining when flagged material constituted prohibited hate or violence.

JPMorgan told CNBC that its policies prohibit discrimination based on political or religious views, acknowledged that WePay’s process “did not meet our expectations” and said it had addressed the issue before shutting down the business.

The report found that Capital One had declined relationships with an abortion-rights organisation after noting that approximately 95 per cent of its political contributions went to Democrats. It also rejected a public education group whose political arm endorsed only Democratic candidates, and a gun-rights organisation over concerns that providing banking services could be interpreted as an endorsement.

The OCC identified restrictions affecting firearms, fossil fuels, private prisons, tobacco and cryptocurrency businesses. It said some banks’ willingness to serve these sectors had shifted with the political climate, creating uncertainty for lawful businesses seeking financial services.

All nine banks told the regulator they had revised or consolidated policies to improve fair access. However, the OCC said none had fully acknowledged past debanking decisions or established a comprehensive programme to address harm to affected customers.

The regulator is considering further rules to prevent discrimination based on political or religious beliefs and address the role of reputation risk in banking decisions. It is separately examining whether anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist financing requirements have contributed to debanking.

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