The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it will investigate the nine largest national banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo, after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a report on debanking. In an Oct. 14 announcement, Acting Director Mark Paoletta said the bureau “will fully investigate” whether the institutions in the report, and others, complied with federal consumer financial law.
The other five banks named are U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank and BMO Bank. The OCC report, “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,” found that all nine had policies that denied or restricted financial access based on customers’ political or religious beliefs or their otherwise lawful business activities, the CFPB says. The report includes excerpts from bank documents, including emails, and the announcement gives no dollar figures or counts of affected customers.
For anyone who has had an account closed or refused, the open question is what the CFPB’s move changes. The announcement sets out no timeline and no penalties, and it says the bureau will open investigations “when warranted.” What it does offer people is a place to send a complaint, because the CFPB says its complaint portal has been updated with debanking information and that it will use complaints to guide its own investigations.
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What did the OCC find at the nine banks?
The OCC released the report on Oct. 14 in News Release 2026-90. It says all nine banks had policies between 2020 and September 2025 that could have required, encouraged or otherwise influenced denying or limiting access to financial services. Broad reputation-risk policies lacked clear, objective, risk-based standards, the OCC says.
The agency lists industries the banks restricted, among them oil and gas exploration, coal mining, firearms and ammunition, detention facility operation, tobacco and e-cigarettes, and digital assets. It reviewed nearly 100,000 complaints to OCC-regulated institutions and about 50,000 documents, roughly 420,000 pages, supplied by the banks.
What can the CFPB actually do?
The bureau says it will look at whether the banks complied with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the adverse action notice requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the ban on unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices. It says it has primary supervisory and enforcement authority over banks with more than $10 billion in assets, a group that includes all nine.
Paoletta called the alleged conduct “appalling” and described the tactics as “thuggish.” The announcement uses future tense for the nine banks and does not say investigations of them have been opened. It also says the bureau is reviewing complaint, supervisory and enforcement data for evidence of unlawful debanking, and says it earlier reviewed its Examination Manual and guidance to remove “reputation risk” concepts that could lead to unlawful debanking.
Did the OCC find that the banks broke the law?
Not in so many words. A law firm summary of the report from Sidley Austin says it alleges no clear violations of law, announces no penalties or enforcement actions, and does not find the systematic political or religious discrimination the review set out to identify. The OCC could not quantify the full extent of the debanking it described.
Sidley also notes that the examples in the report are excerpts the OCC selected, presented without surrounding context or the banks’ explanations, and that how far the legal theories the CFPB cited can reach is unsettled. Comptroller Jonathan Gould said in the release, “Fair access to financial services is not a mantra—it is a mandate,” and that he is “not confident” the banks’ own efforts will be enough.
How did the OCC build its case?
According to Sidley, the review began Sept. 5, 2025, with an information request to the nine banks, followed by bank-specific requests. The OCC tested hundreds of decisions on opening, expanding and terminating customer relationships and reviewed hundreds of account-closure letters. The firm adds that the OCC describes the review as “nearing completion.”
Sidley also says the CFPB’s Oct. 1, 2026 fair lending report named debanking as a priority, which fits the bureau’s move hours after the OCC report appeared. The CFPB announcement says the bureau will “address any consumer harm caused by the nation’s largest banks” and thanked the Treasury Department and the OCC for their review.
Where did the push come from?
The reviews follow Executive Order 14331, “Guaranteeing Fair Banking For All Americans,” signed Aug. 7, 2025. It directs federal banking regulators to remove reputation risk from their examination materials and to review the institutions they supervise for politicized or unlawful debanking, with remedial action where needed. Regulators were also told to review complaint and supervisory data for religion-based debanking and to refer uncorrected cases to the Attorney General. Sidley says the OCC report does not mention any such referrals.
The OCC says it began its review in September 2025, released preliminary findings in December 2025 and may now take further steps, including actions to stop banks from discriminating against customers based on political or religious beliefs. Anyone who believes a bank closed or restricted an account unfairly can file a complaint through the CFPB, which the bureau says it is encouraging.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
