Congress must end political debanking

Each of the nation’s largest banks restricted financial services to lawful customers for political reasons, according to a new report from a top regulator. The Trump administration has moved to stop federal regulators from encouraging such discrimination, and Congress should make these protections permanent.

At the direction of President Donald Trump’s Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans executive order, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency launched an investigation last year of the nation’s nine largest banks to see if certain policies encouraged banks to deny or limit people’s access to financial services because of their political beliefs.