The regulator last December called out JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, PNC, Capital One, TD and BMO in a preliminary report on debanking.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said the 47-page follow-up “provides irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses.” Gould added that “Americans should have access to financial services regardless of their beliefs, affiliations or political views.”
For its report, the OCC said it reviewed nearly 100,000 complaints to institutions it regulates, and combed roughly 420,000 pages of documents on bank policies, procedures, practices and individual customer decisions. The agency said “broad” reputational risk policies “lacked clear standards and objective, risk-based criteria,” which “disadvantaged certain Americans.”
JPMorgan, for instance, repeatedly denied services to a conservative-leaning retailer from 2021 to 2023, the agency argued. The report quoted bank documents as saying, “As more far-right competitor [companies] step in to take this company’s extreme clients, it may become more mainstream and more appropriate for JPM to bank.”
Not every debanking instance in the report went against conservatives. The OCC alleged that Capital One rejected an organization that supported reproductive rights including abortion access.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday said it will “fully investigate whether the institutions featured in OCC’s report and others have complied with federal consumer financial laws and take appropriate action.” CFPB Acting Director Mark Paoletta said in a statement, “It is appalling that these banks targeted American consumers for their political, social, or religious beliefs that did not align with the Biden Administration or its leftist allies.”
Gould emphasized Wednesday that the report was not the end of discussion on the matter. Gould said, “Notwithstanding certain efforts by the largest banks to rein in these practices, I am not confident that they will be enough.”