Trump Signs Executive Order On Debanking

On August 7, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing federal banking regulators to prevent financial institutions and financial service providers from denying or restricting financial services and products based on the recipients political or religious beliefs. The Order also requires regulators to remove the concept of "reputational risk" that the administration believes could lead to debanking from supervisory guidance, manuals, and related examination materials.

The order follows concerns that federal banking regulators used their supervisory authority to force financial institutions to monitor, and in some cases, exit certain customers because of their link to certain political or religious identifiers. The EO establishes a policy that no citizen should be denied access to financial services because of their constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations or political views. The Order is effectively immediately and will be implemented