From 2020 to 2025, the nine largest U.S. banks deliberately discriminated against clients with political or religious views that might be deemed controversial, according to a 47-page report released Wednesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The report confirms that conservative and pro-marriage organizations lost banking access due to the recommendations of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

“This is just shocking information,” exclaimed Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-Fla.) on “Washington Watch.” “These are things that happen in communist regimes or fascist regimes, where the government is playing politics in an aggressive way. … This is why we had to go in to look at the Deep State and why we need to have this transparency in government.”

The OCC investigated the practices of the nine banks that ranked largest by asset size when it began its review in September 2025. These are: JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and BMO Bank. The final report comes after it reviewed some 100,000 complaints, hundreds of bank decisions, and 420,000 pages of documents.

The report found that “the banks largely lacked clear and measurable standards and objective, risk-based criteria for assessing the reputation risks of customer relationships.” The banks acknowledged “the highly subjective nature of a reputation risk assessment” but did not let this fact stop them from suddenly shuttering the accounts of longstanding clients.

Just how subjective these decisions were was evident from the “various sources [used] to inform these decisions, including the results of negative news searches and non-traditional sources, such as the opinions of advocacy organizations.”

For example, PNC in 2021 “declined to issue a line of credit to a media company due to reputation risk concerns.” The “reputation risk” apparently stemmed from the fact that one company owner was “a conservative political commentator,” while another owner had a foundation that “has funded several Christian conservative groups, including several identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC].”

“This underscores why the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been indicted, should be nowhere near government,” declared Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “No one should use them as a reference. They’re a political attack group.”

In testimony before Congress last year, Perkins spotlighted the SPLC’s debanking efforts, noting how “banks, payment processors, and technology companies increasingly relied on SPLC classifications to decide which organizations could maintain accounts, process transactions, or operate online.”

“SPLC officials openly acknowledged this strategy before Congress in January 2020. SPLC official Lecia Brooks stated: ‘We have lobbied internet companies, one by one. … A key part of this strategy has been to target these organizations’ funding,’” said Perkins. “FRC experienced this from Truist Financial, Fidelity Investments, GuideStar, Mobile Cause, and other technology-related companies.”

Given the far-left bias of SPLC, it should come as no surprise that “the banks’ implementation of ambiguous reputation risk policies disadvantaged Americans holding certain political, religious, and social views,” as the OCC report found.

For example, in February 2021, WePay, Inc., a subsidiary of JPMorgan, closed the account of a t-shirt merchant because “they’ve started selling t-shirts that promote hate and are pro-Trump.” WePay developed and maintained a list of terms that it considered violations of its guidelines; the “exemplar list” reviewed by the OCC “included terms such as MAGA, Make America Great, and America First,” as well as names of “certain ‘hate groups’ identified by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

In June 2021, “WePay closed the account of a customer that employees characterized in the bank’s internal tracking system as a ‘[r]ight wing religious conservative non profit with strong anti LGBTQ rhetoric.’” The next month, “WePay closed an account used to raise funds to support a legal challenge by a ‘devout Christian’ of certain anti-discrimination laws.”

The OCC review identified a double standard between banking clients based upon their net worth. “Mere allegations, negative press, or negative reviews contributed to some banks declining to serve average Americans, even in the absence of any validation of the underlying facts or concerns,” it noted, “yet some banks were able to find ways to get comfortable with the reputation risks posed by high-net-worth clients.”

Indeed, on Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed $1.2 billion in penalties on Bank of America for its years-long failure to report or prevent money laundering. “This is the third largest fine that the agency has ever issued to a financial institution,” said Perkins. “A lot of this has connections with Russia and Iran. … They couldn’t keep up with the terrorists and the other bad actors, but they could sure cut off the Christians.”

The OCC report concluded that the debanking standards were often surprising and confusing for clients who suddenly found their bank account closed, with only a vague explanation insufficient to even mount an effective appeal.

The report cited one instance where Wells Fargo induced an “independent sales organization” to close a nonprofit’s account after “highlighting the nonprofit’s views on same-sex marriage.” One of three resources Wells Fargo relied upon to identify problematic organizations was the SPLC. The Wells Fargo vendor, which had previously determined the nonprofit in question was not engaged in hateful conduct, “subsequently terminated the nonprofit’s account with immediate effect.”

“The nonprofit received no advance warning of the independent sales organization’s account closure decision and no explanation beyond that it was identified as affiliated with a product or service that promotes hate, violence, harassment, or abuse,” the OCC explained. “As a result of the independent sales organization’s decision, the nonprofit had to quickly notify donors of potential donation processing issues and adjust its website.”

“Americans who are denied financial services or whose accounts are suddenly closed experience real world financial consequences,” the report argued. “Customers or prospective customers may be denied access to funding or other specialized financial products to expand their business operations, be unable to make critical payments on time, be forced to quickly find new banking relationships and incur costs associated with opening a new account, or experience delays in receiving access to the funds in their closed accounts.” Additionally, “A customer or prospective customer that does not receive an adequate explanation from a bank regarding its decision to deny services or terminate a relationship is left to speculate as to the cause.”

“In America, citizens should not lose access to banking services, digital platforms, public credibility, or physical safety because they believe in biblical teaching on marriage and human sexuality,” Perkins urged Congress in his testimony last year. “When government-regulated institutions can apply ideological labels in a coordinated fashion to silence, isolate, or financially cripple opponents, we allow political targeting by proxy, and freedom is at risk.”

Fortunately, the OCC report found that “All nine banks report having reassessed the role of reputation risk in decisions to establish, maintain, or terminate customer relationships.” At least some of these reassessments coincided with the Trump administration taking power in Washington, suggesting that these policies were at least tacitly encouraged by the Biden administration. However, “despite taking some steps to address fair access concerns, opportunities for future debanking remain due, in part, to inexact reputational risk policies and processes.”

Haridopolos argued that the “first, biggest” way to ensure that banks do not revert to practices of debanking conservatives is “to get out and vote.” He acknowledged that “People are a little apprehensive right now. They’re frustrated by higher gas prices. But people need to get out and vote. Elections truly matter.”