Countless MAGA, Religious Groups Were Debanked During Biden Administration, Explosive Report Finds

The nation’s largest banks cut off a MAGA merchandise seller and conservative nonprofits, much of it during the Biden years, according to a federal report released Wednesday. 

The 47-page report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) examined nearly 100,000 complaints and about 420,000 pages of bank documents. It found that all nine banks reviewed used vague “reputation risk” policies that let employees deny service to customers over their politics, religion, or lawful business activities the banks disliked.

The nine banks were JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank and BMO.

All nine banks told the OCC they have since changed their policies, but the agency warned that the changes might not prevent a return to past practices. “The OCC is unable to say with confidence that current policies preclude banks returning to the harmful practices discussed in this report,” the agency wrote.

Some banks simply renamed reputation risk as “franchise” or “brand” risk. The report also noted that “no bank has fully and publicly acknowledged its past debanking decisions.”

In February 2021, WePay, a payment company owned by JPMorgan, closed the account of a merchant that sold pro-Trump and MAGA products. “We closed their account due to violating our WePay’s Terms of Services (MAGA and Trump-related items are part of it),” one employee wrote. WePay’s screening software was set to flag phrases including “MAGA,” “Make America Great” and “America First.” That September, it dropped another seller of “conservative/republican t-shirts, hats, etc.,” pointing to items like a “Biden-Illegitimate-T Shirt.”

A JPMorgan spokesperson told The Daily Wire that its “policies prohibit discrimination against customers based on political or religious views,” and that a process used by WePay, which the bank has since wound down, did not meet its expectations. “We identified it, corrected it, and the business no longer operates.”

PNC denied a line of credit to a media company in 2021, citing concerns about the political views of its owners. “I think it becomes really difficult to justify aligning ourselves with a company whose owners have built very public personas around opinions very contrary to PNC’s beliefs/values,” one PNC employee wrote.

TD Bank flagged a Christian health care sharing ministry, writing that its “moral and religious requirements” appeared “to conflict with TD’s values of diversity and inclusion.”

Gun businesses also faced scrutiny. In 2024, Wells Fargo staff reviewing a prospective firearms-industry client wrote that “[u]nder the Biden administration, banks could face greater supervisory pressure to move away from lending to the firearms industry.” Wells Fargo ultimately declined the business, citing a lack of potential revenue.

JPMorgan turned away small firearms makers under its industry restrictions, including one for which screening found no negative news and positive online reviews, according to the report. The spokesperson also said years of operating in a regulatory environment that often second-guessed decisions contributed to a “culture of caution across the banking industry.” The spokesperson added, “That system needs fixing.”

The coal industry also faced restrictions, with banks limiting financing for new or expanded coal mining operations and coal-fired power plants. Some even restricted financial services to companies based on how much of their revenue was derived from coal. The report said banks cited concerns about negative headlines, public protests, and the perceived reputational consequences of financing the coal industry. 

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said the agency is not asking banks to serve every customer but is asking them to “evaluate every customer on objective, risk-based criteria” rather than political views or objections to lawful business activities. 

More from this network:
Domains for Sale · GOTPeople.org · TheDSAPlatform · The Truth About Socialism

Donate to GOTPeople.org