Charles Scharf, of Wells Fargo & Co., from left, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America Corp., Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jane Fraser of Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Ron O’Hanley of State Street Corp., and Robin Vince of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Dec. 6, 2023. (Credit: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Many of America’s biggest banks waged a cancel culture war against conservatives and Christian groups over their politics and religious beliefs, a federal investigation revealed this week.
Major U.S. banks denied financial services to conservative businesses, Trump merchandise sellers and Christian organizations, with employees citing customers’ political views, religious beliefs and conflicts with the banks’ own values, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in a report released Wednesday.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s report documents account closures, rejected financing and internal screening for terms including “MAGA” and “America First.” It also shows bank employees weighing potential pressure from the Biden administration when deciding whether to serve lawful businesses.
The agency is considering additional rules, bringing debanking records into merger and community-lending reviews, and opening a path for customers to obtain confidential supervisory information in private litigation.
All nine national banks that the OCC reviewed maintained policies restricting services or requiring heightened scrutiny based on reputation risk or industry. The specific findings varied: JPMorgan Chase, PNC, Wells Fargo, and Capital One were cited in completed denials or closures involving political or religious views. The report’s examples involving Citibank and Bank of America concerned industry restrictions and other so-called “reputation-risk” decisions, rather than denials based on customers’ religious beliefs or political affiliations.
Industry restrictions covered Arctic oil and gas exploration and development, coal mining and coal-fired power plants, firearms and ammunition, private prisons and detention facilities, tobacco and e-cigarettes, and digital assets.
Many restrictions reflected anticipated reactions from activists, shareholders, politicians and other stakeholders rather than assessments of financial or operational risk. Digital-asset restrictions were also frequently attributed to concerns about financial crime.
“Today’s report provides irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses,” Comptroller Jonathan Gould said in an accompanying statement.
The review examined nearly 100,000 complaints, hundreds of individual decisions and approximately 420,000 pages of bank documents. The review covered 2020 through September 2025. President Donald Trump ordered the investigation as part of his effort to end politically motivated debanking. (Read more: Breitbart News, 10/15/2026) (Archive)