On August 7th, President Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at combating debanking of individuals or 
businesses for political or ideological reasons. The order, Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans, describes that some financial institutions have engaged in “unacceptable practices to restrict law-abiding individuals’ and businesses’ access to financial services on the basis of political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities”. It further stated that, “Bank regulators have used supervisory scrutiny and other influence over regulated banks to direct or otherwise encourage politicized or unlawful debanking activities.”
The order states that the policy of the United States is that “no American should be denied access to financial services because of their constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views, and to ensure that politicized or unlawful debanking is not used as a tool to inhibit such beliefs, affiliations, or political views. Banking decisions must instead be made on the basis of individualized, objective, and risk-based analyses.”
It requires within 180 days that financial regulators remove the use of reputational risk or equivalent concepts that could result in debanking from their guidance documents, manuals, and other materials used to regulate and examine financial institutions. It further directs federal banking regulators to consider rescinding or amending existing regulations that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking.
It further requires the Small Business Administration (SBA) to notify financial institutions it does business with of the requirements of the order and those financial institutions must identify and reinstate clients previously denied services due to politicized or unlawful debanking. It also requires the Treasury Secretary to develop a comprehensive plan to combat politicized or unlawful unbanking.
