Trump takes action to regulate the banking industry "debanking," OCC names giants like JPMorgan Chase

【ChainNews】There is new movement on the US front. Recently, Trump has focused on the issue of “selective services” that banks provide to controversial industries like cryptocurrencies, directly prompting the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to release an investigative report.

The report examined nine top US government-owned banks and found that these institutions had indeed made some moves between 2020 and 2023—both through publicly available policy documents and unwritten internal rules. The core practice involved setting thresholds for certain industries: wanting to open an account? First pass an upgraded review, with multiple layers of approval before gaining access to services.

Major financial giants like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup were all named. The report even included links to their past public statements, especially those related to environmental policies. In essence, these banks are raising entry standards for “controversial” or “environmentally sensitive” businesses, or clients whose values don’t align with theirs.

The OCC has taken a firm stance this time: planning to hold responsible for these illegal “de-banking” behaviors, with serious cases possibly handed directly to the Attorney General. Interestingly, the report did not specify which particular laws these actions violated. It appears that further developments will need to be watched closely.