As Congressional leaders grapple with a surge in banking discrimination cases, new data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has exposed an uncomfortable truth: America’s largest banks are increasingly showing certain customers the door. The numbers don’t lie – over 8,000 consumers have filed complaints about improper account closures in just three years, with another 3,899 reporting they couldn’t even open an account in the first place.
JPMorgan Chase leads the pack in this unwelcome contest, racking up 1,423 improper closure complaints. Not to be outdone, fintech companies like Chime, PayPal, and Block are jumping on the debanking bandwagon. Because apparently, turning away paying customers is the hot new trend in finance. The FDIC intervention has provided some protection for affected banking customers.
The Senate Banking Committee, led by Tim Scott, isn’t taking this lying down. Their February 2025 hearing put the spotlight on this mess, particularly focusing on cryptocurrency users and politically affiliated individuals who’ve been shown the exit. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan strongly denies any political bias in their account closure decisions.
And they’re not alone – civil liberties groups are raising hell, with the ACLU demanding Congress step up and stop the politically-motivated account closures.
Republicans are throwing solutions at the wall to see what sticks. Senator Kevin Cramer’s Fair Access to Banking Act has gathered 41 cosponsors, while Senator John Kennedy’s cleverly named “No Red and Blue Banks Act” aims to hit banks where it hurts – their government contracts.
States are getting in on the action too, crafting their own laws to prevent financial institutions from playing politics with people’s money.
Meanwhile, small businesses are caught in the crossfire. They’re facing a double whammy of credit access problems and revenue uncertainties.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is digging deeper, investigating whether government regulators are secretly pulling the strings behind these account closures.
The whole situation’s turned into such a circus that it’s managed to do the impossible – get libertarian conservatives and progressive liberals working together. Now that’s what you call a banking crisis.
