Carter termed this alleged discrimination campaign Operation Chokepoint 2.0, in reference to an Obama-era antifraud program under which US officials reportedly discouraged banks from dealing with pornography, payday lending, and other disfavored industries. On the campaign trail ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Trump adopted the terminology himself.
“I’m glad the Trump administration is taking up this fight, and I hope they can create a framework for fairer banking overall,” says Carter, speaking to WIRED.
The FDIC and Federal Reserve declined to comment. “It is unacceptable for banks to discriminate against customers or prospective customers based on political or religious beliefs,” says Gould, comptroller of the currency at the OCC. “I intend to assess the size and scope of this problem and take appropriate action to depoliticize the federal banking system, and ensure banks provide fair access to financial services as required by law.”
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Trump claimed to have experienced debanking first-hand: Both Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, he alleged, have previously either withdrawn accounts or refused to accept his deposits. “The banks discriminated against me very badly,” Trump claimed.
“We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed,” says Patricia Wexler, managing director of corporate communications at JP Morgan. The Bank of America declined to comment, but pointed to a subsequent interview in which its CEO, Brian Moynihan, said, “we bank everybody.”
According to Donald Trump Jr., the banks’ behavior helped to awaken the Trump family to the supposed promise of crypto, as the basis for a parallel financial system in which everybody has custody over their own funds. “We got into crypto not because it was, like, hey this is the next cool thing. We got into it out of necessity,” he told CNBC in June.
Since Trump’s return to the White House, crypto companies are already finding it easier to secure accounts with US banks, as WIRED previously reported. But while the recent vibe shift is welcome, there remain questions about the practicalities of enforcing the executive order—and potential unwanted side-effects tied to restricting the terms on which a bank may decline to serve a customer.
“Simply demanding that banks provide services to all clients is not workable because banks should be allowed discretion over whom they serve,” says Carter. “The challenge is to install a supervisory regime that allows banks the discretion to derisk unprofitable or risky clients through the ordinary course of their business while ending the practice of debanking clients because of their politics.”
One step towards achieving that, Carter proposes, might be to pare back the doctrine of “confidential supervisory information,” under which banks are prevented from disclosing to the public the details of certain discussions with their regulators.
“Despite Swan getting debanked in 2022 with no explanation and no recourse, I believe in the right of private enterprises, even banks, to assess risk and decide who they want to do business with,” says Cory Klippsten, CEO at bitcoin services company Swan Bitcoin. “This looks more like political theater and payback for crypto campaign donations than a real attempt to solve the problem.”
The White House declined to comment.
The crypto industry can only be confident of its long-term security in the US market once its access to banking has been enshrined in law, beyond an executive order that could be readily rescinded by a future administration.
“Even though there is a more friendly administration in place at the moment, there still hasn’t been anything codified into law,” said Azeem Khan, founder of crypto startup Miden, speaking to WIRED earlier in the year. “[We need] new laws that allow us to be sure the pendulum won’t swing based on who is sitting in the chair.”