OCC report finds nine largest US banks targeted customers for politics and faith

A report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) titled ‘Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans’ has concluded that the nine largest national banks in the United States engaged in practices that disadvantaged customers based on their political and religious beliefs between 2020 and September 2025.

The review, which analyzed approximately 100,000 complaints and 420,000 pages of bank records, found that institutions including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank, and BMO restricted or closed accounts for MAGA merchants, pro-life causes, and Christian organizations. The report indicates these banks often cited “reputation risk” as a justification for these actions.

The findings suggest that banks adopted categorizations used by organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center to deny services. The report also notes that during the Biden administration, various pressures—including climate-finance commitments and executive orders regarding climate-related financial risk—influenced the banking sector's decision-making processes.