By Saeed Azhar, Nupur Anand and Chris Prentice
NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Big U.S. lenders are bracing for further public scrutiny over whether they improperly closed customer accounts as a top watchdog wraps up a review that is expected to name and shame banks and result in disciplinary action, said several people with knowledge of the matter.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is poised to publish in coming weeks the findings of a supervisory review of whether lenders including JPMorgan and Bank of America cut off or denied services on religious or political grounds, often dubbed debanking. It has also examined whether lenders denied services to legitimate, conservative-aligned sectors such as fossil-fuel companies, gun makers and crypto, the people said.
Debanking generally refers to the process whereby a financial institution suddenly cuts off or restricts services to individuals or businesses. Following Republican President Donald Trump's order last year, authorities have been cracking down on what Trump has characterized as politically motivated debanking pushed by Democrats, creating headaches for lenders, who deny the claims and say they have merely been following risk management rules.
Republicans have for years been ramping up pressure on Wall Street banks to drop what they describe as left-leaning "woke" policies that they say are discriminatory, and Trump says he has personally had accounts closed for such political reasons.
NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Big U.S. lenders are bracing for further public scrutiny over whether they improperly closed customer accounts as a top watchdog wraps up a review that is expected to name and shame banks and result in disciplinary action, said several people with knowledge of the matter.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is poised to publish in coming weeks the findings of a supervisory review of whether lenders including JPMorgan and Bank of America cut off or denied services on religious or political grounds, often dubbed debanking. It has also examined whether lenders denied services to legitimate, conservative-aligned sectors such as fossil-fuel companies, gun makers and crypto, the people said.
Debanking generally refers to the process whereby a financial institution suddenly cuts off or restricts services to individuals or businesses. Following Republican President Donald Trump's order last year, authorities have been cracking down on what Trump has characterized as politically motivated debanking pushed by Democrats, creating headaches for lenders, who deny the claims and say they have merely been following risk management rules.
Republicans have for years been ramping up pressure on Wall Street banks to drop what they describe as left-leaning "woke" policies that they say are discriminatory, and Trump says he has personally had accounts closed for such political reasons.
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