[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 153 (Tuesday, August 12, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 38925-38927]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-15341]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90 , No. 153 / Tuesday, August 12, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 38925]]
Executive Order 14331 of August 7, 2025
Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. 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. Some financial
institutions participated in Government-directed
surveillance programs targeting persons participating
in activities and causes commonly associated with
conservatism and the political right following the
events that occurred at or near the United States
Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Federal Government
suggested that such institutions flag individuals who
made transactions related to companies like
``Cabela's'' and ``Bass Pro Shop'' or who made peer-to-
peer payments that involved terms like ``Trump'' or
``MAGA,'' even though there was no specific evidence
tying those individuals to criminal conduct.
Bank regulators have used supervisory scrutiny and
other influence over regulated banks to direct or
otherwise encourage politicized or unlawful debanking
activities. ``Operation Chokepoint,'' for example, was
a well-documented and systemic means by which Federal
regulators pushed banks to minimize their involvement
with individuals and companies engaged in lawful
activities and industries disfavored by regulators
based on factors other than individualized, objective,
risk-based standards.
As a result, individuals, their businesses, and their
families have been subjected to debanking on the basis
of their political affiliations, religious beliefs or
lawful business activities, and have suffered frozen
payrolls, debt and crushing interest, and other
significant harms to their livelihoods, reputations,
and financial well-being. Such practices are
incompatible with a free society and the principle that
the provision of banking services should be based on
material, measurable, and justifiable risks. Such
practices, when wielded to discriminate against
customers and businesses in credit transactions due to
their religion, are also unlawful under the Equal
Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691 et seq.). They
further undermine public trust in banking institutions
and their regulators, discriminate against political
beliefs and free expression of those beliefs, and
weaponize a politicized regulatory state.
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States
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.
Sec. 3. Definitions. (a) The term ``politicized or
unlawful debanking'' refers to an act by a bank,
savings association, credit union, or other financial
services provider to directly or indirectly adversely
restrict access to, or adversely modify the conditions
of, accounts, loans, or other banking products or
financial services of any customer or potential
customer on the basis of the customer's or potential
customer's political or religious beliefs, or on the
basis of the customer's or potential customer's lawful
business activities that the financial service provider
disagrees with or disfavors for political reasons.
[[Page 38926]]
(b) The term ``Federal banking regulators'' refers
to the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the
Federal member agencies of the Financial Stability
Oversight Council with supervisory and regulatory
authority over banks, savings associations, or credit
unions.
Sec. 4. Removing Reputation Risk and Politicized or
Unlawful Debanking. (a) Within 180 days of the date of
this order, each appropriate Federal banking regulator
shall, to the greatest extent permitted by law, remove
the use of reputation risk or equivalent concepts that
could result in politicized or unlawful debanking, as
well as any other considerations that could be used to
engage in such debanking, from their guidance
documents, manuals, and other materials (other than
existing regulations or other materials requiring
notice-and-comment rulemaking) used to regulate or
examine financial institutions over which they have
jurisdiction. The removal of such concepts shall be
made clear by each appropriate Federal banking
regulator through formal guidance to their examiners.
The Federal banking regulators shall also consider
rescinding or amending existing regulations, consistent
with applicable law, to eliminate or amend any
regulations that could result in politicized or
unlawful debanking and to ensure that any regulated
firm's or individual's reputation is considered for
regulatory, supervisory, banking, or enforcement
purposes solely to the extent necessary to reach a
reasonable and apolitical risk-based assessment.
(b) The SBA shall, within 60 days of the date of
this order, give notice to all financial institutions
with which it guarantees loans under its lending
programs, requiring that each financial institution
that is subject to the SBA's jurisdiction and
supervision:
(i) within 120 days of the date of this order, makes reasonable efforts to
identify and reinstate any previous clients of the institution or any
subsidiaries denied service through a politicized or unlawful debanking
action in violation of a statutory or regulatory requirement under section
7(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636) or any requirement in a
Standard Operating Procedures Manual or Policy Notice related to a program
or function of the Office of Capital Access, with notice of the
reinstatement sent to the victim;
(ii) within 120 days of the date of this order, identifies all potential
clients denied access to financial services provided by the financial
institution or any subsidiaries through a politicized or unlawful debanking
action in violation of a statutory or regulatory requirement under section
7(a) of the Small Business Act or any requirement in a Standard Operating
Procedures Manual or Policy Notice related to a program or function of the
Office of Capital Access, and provides notice to each victim advising of
the denied access and the renewed option to engage in such services
previously denied; and
(iii) within 120 days of the date of this order, identifies all potential
clients denied access to payment processing services provided by the
financial institution or any subsidiaries through a politicized or unlawful
debanking action in violation of a statutory or regulatory requirement
under section 7(a) of the Small Business Act or any requirement in a
Standard Operating Procedures Manual or Policy Notice related to a program
or function of the Office of Capital Access, and provides notice to each
victim advising of the denied access and the renewed option to engage in
such services previously denied.
Sec. 5. Scrutinizing Politicized or Unlawful Debanking.
(a) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the
Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the
Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, shall
develop a comprehensive strategy for further measures
to combat politicized or unlawful debanking activities
of financial regulators and financial institutions
across the Federal Government, including consideration
of legislative or regulatory options to eliminate such
debanking.
(b) Within 120 days of the date of this order, each
Federal banking regulator shall conduct a review to
identify financial institutions subject to its
jurisdiction that have had any past or current, formal
or informal, policies or
[[Page 38927]]
practices that require, encourage, or otherwise
influence such financial institution to engage in
politicized or unlawful debanking and to take
appropriate remedial action, to the extent authorized
and consistent with applicable law, including levying
fines, issuing consent decrees, or imposing other
disciplinary measures against any financial institution
subject to the jurisdiction of such Federal banking
regulator that such Federal banking regulator finds has
engaged in politicized or unlawful debanking that
violates applicable law (including section 5 of the
Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45), section
1031 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (12
U.S.C. 5531), and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act).
(c) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the
Federal banking regulators shall review their current
supervisory and complaint data to identify any
financial institution that has engaged in unlawful
debanking on the basis of religion and, if such
financial institution is unable to obtain compliance
within the meaning of 15 U.S.C. 1691 and 1691e(g),
refer such matters to the Attorney General for an
appropriate civil action, as appropriate.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(d) The costs for publication of this order shall
be borne by the Small Business Administration.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
August 7, 2025.
[FR Doc. 2025-15341
Filed 8-11-25; 11:15 am]
Billing code 8026-09-P