Christian Groups Among Those Cited As ‘Reputational Risks’ By Banks
A report released this week revealed that several large banks may have followed practices and policies that affected the availability of financial services to groups based on their political or religious beliefs, as well as legal business practices.
Presented on Oct. 14 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the report came as a response to President Donald Trump’s August 2025 executive order on fair banking for all Americans.
The OCC reviewed nearly 100,000 complaints and received approximately 50,000 documents spanning about 420,000 pages for nine of the largest banks it supervises: JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank and BMO Bank. The investigation looked into policies, procedures, practices and individual customer decisions.
The investigation found that “ambiguous reputation risk policies” lacked clear standards and objective, risk-based criteria, which led to the de-banking of various groups. Examples cited include the closing of an account by a merchant that sold MAGA gear, the denial of financial services to a public education organization that endorsed Democratic candidates and a bank whose “responsible firearm standards” restricted it from entering into business relationships with customers whose personal views on guns did not align.
The report does not cite a specific case of a church but does mention that the religious views of groups appeared to be a factor in risk management policies.
In 2021, for instance, PNC declined a line of credit to a media company over reputational risk concerns. That decision was influenced by the bank’s environmental and social governance group, which expressed concerns over a speech by one owner who was “a conservative political commentator” and another owner whose foundation “has funded several Christian conservative groups” that had been identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“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,” said one bank employee, as stated in the report.
“No one should be denied access to basic financial services because of their political or religious beliefs,” said Jeremy Tedesco, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) senior counsel and senior vice president of the Counter-Censorship Task Force. “… The report detailed how big banks have used vague ‘reputational risk’ standards to punish and cancel accounts of faith-based nonprofits like ADF client Indigenous Advance. As the report made clear, debanking inflicts ‘real-world harm to customers and prospective customers’ like Indigenous Advance, whose Ugandan employees were forced to wait on delayed paychecks because of Bank of America’s decision to abruptly cancel the nonprofit’s accounts.
“… The report also highlights the widespread influence played by far-left groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has recently been indicted on multiple counts, including on three counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank and one count of money laundering.”
The report provided “irrefutable evidence” of discrimination, said Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould.
“Americans should have access to financial services regardless of their beliefs, affiliations or political views,” he said. “Fair access to financial services is not a mantra – it is a mandate. The Trump Administration is committed to ending the weaponization of finance against hardworking Americans, once and for all.”
This article was originally published by Baptist Press.
Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.