In a comprehensive report released Wednesday, the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found that some of the largest banks serving the United States allow political considerations, public pressure, and societal concerns to influence decisions about where to provide banking services.
The OCC announced that it investigated the nine largest national banks it oversees, reviewing approximately 100,000 complaints and approximately 420,000 pages of documents. All nine companies were found to have adopted “reputational risk” policies that lacked “clear” and “objective” standards and could disadvantage customers based on political or religious views or legitimate business activities.
The findings could lend new regulatory weight to a grievance that President Donald Trump has had since returning to office. President Trump has repeatedly accused and sued major banks of discriminating against conservatives, and said he had his “bank account taken away” after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, a claim the banks deny.
The report was released a day after the OCC and other financial regulators imposed fines of more than $1.2 billion. bank of america Regarding individual failures in anti-money laundering efforts. At the same time, the OCC said it is investigating whether banks’ efforts to comply with anti-money laundering rules are themselves contributing to bank closures.
What was featured in the review JP Morgan ChaseBank of America, citibank, wells fargo, us bank, capital one, pnc bank, TD Bank and BMO Bankwhich together held the majority of the assets of commercial banks supervised by the OCC when the investigation began last year under a Trump executive order.
The OCC stopped short of announcing any fines or sanctions Wednesday, but said it was considering additional rules aimed at preventing political or religious discrimination.
Among the cases highlighted by the magazine was JP Morgan’s subsidiary WePay, which closed the accounts of merchants selling products for President Trump and conservatives. Although the internal review list included terms such as “MAGA,” “Make America Great,” and “America First,” the OCC determined that neither WePay nor JPMorgan had formal written standards for determining when flagged content constitutes prohibited hate or violence.
JPMorgan told CNBC that its policies prohibit discrimination based on political or religious views and that WePay’s process “did not meet our expectations.” The bank said it had resolved the issue and subsequently ceased operations.
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