Preliminary findings from a new federal review confirm what the Media Research Center previously highlighted: banks caved to Biden administration pressure to censor Americans.
On Dec. 10, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that, between 2020 and 2023, nine banks engaged in biased debanking activities while under government-granted charter. This time period overlapped with the Biden administration’s efforts to eliminate the “Fair Access Rule,” which protects free speech and prevents financial censorship, as MRC exposed in its groundbreaking Special Report on the Biden administration’s “whole of society approach” to censorship.
The OCC stated that the banks “made inappropriate distinctions among customers in the provision of financial services on the basis of their lawful business activities by maintaining policies restricting access to banking services or requiring escalated reviews and approvals before providing certain customers access to financial services.” Or, in less technical language, the nation’s nine largest national banks restricted, or encumbered with extra reviews, perfectly lawful and legitimate business activities.
One bank — the OCC did not clarify which — imposed restrictions on some industry sectors, claiming that they were legal, but not in line with the bank’s “values.” These supposedly objectionable industries included coal mining, private prisons, firearms, oil and gas, tobacco and digital assets.
The current Trump-appointed Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould noted that both regulators and banks have enforced unjust policies. “It is unfortunate that the nation’s largest banks thought these harmful debanking policies were an appropriate use of their government-granted charter and market power,” he said.
Old Glory Bank President and CEO Mike Ring told MRC, “The OCC's report is the latest validation of what Old Glory Bank has preached since its launch in 2023. Banks intentionally pick and choose winners and losers. Now, big banks want to blame the regulators, but we know it's them.”
Old Glory Bank, Ring emphasized, “is subject to the same regulatory scheme and the same Bank Secrecy Act, yet we have never denied banking to any legal industry or group, including oil and gas, firearms, crypto, and people who love America and the Flag. Old Glory Bank was created to be a market-based solution to debanking, and we have proven ourselves as the premier defender of financial PSL - Privacy, Security, Liberty.”
MRC’s 57 Biden censorship initiatives highlighted (initiative #3) the Biden administration’s war on the “Fair Access Rule.” Within only eight days of Biden’s inauguration, the OCC blocked the rule’s enforcement and quickly began to roll back the regulation altogether. This effort from the Biden OCC occurred as large banks accelerated their blacklisting of former government officials, political activists and even entire industries — as mentioned above — if the individuals or entities in question held views contrary to Democrat views. The Biden administration not only facilitated debanking by undermining the rule, it also refused to take action against such censorship (initiative #55). The Trump administration now has the opportunity to reverse that inaction.
The banks investigated by the OCC were JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and BMO Bank.
Infamously debanked individuals and groups include President Donald Trump himself (Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase), Trump attorney John Eastman (Bank of America and USAA), the National Committee for Religious Freedom (JPMorgan Chase) and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell (Minnesota Bank & Trust).
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
