The New Era of Fair Banking: The Federal Administration’s Increased Focus on Debanking and How Financial Institutions Should Respond (Volume 42, Number 8–August 2026)
Author: Lori Sommerfield, Chris Willis, and Lane Page.
Source: Volume 42, Number 08, August 2026 , pp.91-102(12)
Abstract:
The issuance of Executive Order 14331 (Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans) in August 2025 marked a turning point in U.S. fair banking policy, directing federal banking regulators, the CFPB, and the SBA to identify and remediate past debanking practices and to prohibit future denials of financial services based on political, religious, or ideological grounds. Federal agencies have taken significant steps to implement the Order, including removing reputation risk from examination frameworks, conducting look-back reviews of supervised institutions, and — in the case of the OCC — releasing preliminary findings identifying certain industry-sector restrictions at major national banks. At the same time, three states (Florida, Tennessee, and Idaho) have enacted fair access laws, Congress has introduced the Fair Access to Banking Act, and the FTC has issued warning letters to major payment processors, signaling that the administration’s debanking agenda extends across the full spectrum of financial services. Against this rapidly evolving regulatory and legal landscape, financial institutions and small business lenders should act now to review policies and practices, document objective and risk-based decisioning, monitor complaints, and prepare for the possibility of supervisory criticism, investigations, enforcement actions, and private litigation.Keywords: Executive Order 14331; Reputation Risk; “Fair Access” Laws; NRA v. Vullo; Risk Mitigation
Affiliations:
1: Troutman Pepper Locke LLP.