President Donald Trump is set to crack down on Wall Street banks accused of dropping customers over their conservative beliefs and shutting out cryptocurrency companies, a new report states.
Trump, the self-professed first “crypto-president,” is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week that threatens financial penalties in response to so-called politically motivated “debanking,” sources told the Wall Street Journal.
A draft of the order viewed by the Journal directs bank regulators to investigate whether financial institutions have violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a federal law that bars discrimination in access to credit.
Investigators are reportedly also directed to look into whether antitrust or consumer financial protection laws have been breached.
In some cases, the newspaper said, violations are to be reported by regulators to the attorney general, according to the order.
The draft is said to urge regulators to strike any policies that might have contributed to banks dropping certain customers. The Small Business Administration is directed to review bank practices that guarantee the agency’s loans.
The directive also criticizes the role that some banks played in an investigation into the riots at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, according to the newspaper.
The draft reportedly states that violating lenders could be slapped with fines and consent decrees, among other disciplinary measures.
While the order doesn’t explicitly name any offenders, the Journal said it appears to refer to an instance where a Christian organization operating in Uganda had its accounts shut down by the Bank of America, citing religious beliefs.
The bank contested that it does not serve small businesses operating outside the U.S.
Conservatives have long accused banks of denying them services on the grounds of their political or religious beliefs.
In January, Trump said the CEOs Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase – Brian Moynihan and Jamie Dimon respectively – did not provide banking services to conservatives.
While speaking to Fox Business last week, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott pointed fingers at regulators for shutting down bank accounts of Americans they “just don’t like.”
Regulators operate under an “alphabet soup” of federal agencies, sources told the news station, while Scott called the situation in D.C. a “financial swamp.”
Meanwhile, crypto firms have repeatedly complained they were denied access to banking services while former President Joe Biden was in office.
Financial institutions have cited legal, regulatory and financial risks and blamed pressure from regulators for their previous decisions to largely avoid the cryptocurrency industry.
A Bank of America spokesperson on Monday welcomed efforts to provide regulatory clarity. They told the Journal that the bank is committed to working with the Trump administration and supporting Congress to “improve the regulatory framework.”
In late April, the Justice Department said it was launching a task force in Virginia to “combat illegal debanking.”
The task force was set to review allegations of banks refusing customers access to credit or other services based on “impermissible factors.”
