“Today’s report provides irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses,” Jonathan Gould, the comptroller of the currency, said in a news release.
The OCC began its review following an executive order from President Trump, who has accused major banks of discriminating against conservatives. Trump even filed a $5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, accusing the bank of closing his accounts for political reasons.
The findings
The OCC report names JPMorgan Chase Bank, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Capitol One, U.S. Bank and PNC Bank, as well as Canadian lenders Bank of Montreal and TD Bank.
The report found that all nine institutions had used “reputation risk” policies that could disadvantage customers because of their political or religious beliefs, or because of lawful business activities. The report also found these institutions lacked clear, objective internal policies and standards for accessing reputation risks.
One of the incidents cited in the report includes JPMorgan subsidiary WePay, which closed accounts that belonged to merchants selling Trump-related items, CNBC reported. Internal screening lists flagged terms such as “MAGA,” “Make America Great” and “America First,” despite the fact that the institutions did not have formal standards for which material should be prohibited.
JPMorgan told CNBC its policies prohibit discrimination and that WePay’s process failed to meet its expectations. The issue has reportedly been fixed and WePay has been shut down.
The report also found that it wasn’t just conservatives who were impacted. According to the OCC, Capital One turned down relationships with an abortion-rights group after finding that 95% of its political contributions went to the Democrats.
Customers who worked in certain industries were also impacted. The OCC found that some banks turned away customers based on their industries, including businesses tied to the oil and gas industry, firearms and ammunition, as well as crypto and tobacco.
“We are not forcing these banks to serve every customer,” Gould told CNBC. “Instead, banks should evaluate every customer on objective, risk-based criteria.”
