Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson sent letters on March 26 to four major financial infrastructure platforms and payment providers. He advised them that they have obligations to their customers under the FTC Act.
The letters were issued to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard. They raise concerns about publicly reported instances of financial services companies denying customers access to services because of their political or religious views.
Excerpts
“Full participation in commerce and public life necessarily requires that law-abiding individuals can access, and freely participate in, our financial system,” Chairman Ferguson wrote.
“As an American citizen, I abhor and condemn any efforts to debank or otherwise deny law-abiding consumers access to financial services on the basis of their political or religious beliefs. The harms that stem from these actions are not abstract. Full participation in commerce and public life necessarily requires that law-abiding individuals can access and freely participate in our financial system.
“It is inconsistent with American values to deny law-abiding individuals the ability to run their legitimate businesses and feed their families because they attracted the ire of rogue American officials, overzealous activists, or, even more worryingly, foreign governments seeking to control public discourse. That is why President Trump’s August 7, 2025, Executive Order on debanking makes clear that it is unacceptable to debank law-abiding citizens due to “political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities.”
The FTC Chair is looking at patterns of behavior.
The History
Debanking refers to banks closing accounts or denying services to individuals or businesses, often without explanation. The practice originated under federal anti-money laundering laws and regulations. An entity can be debanked after its transactions are flagged as suspicious. However, in recent years, conservative and religious groups have accused banks of discriminating against them because of their beliefs.
Debanking gained significant momentum during the Obama presidency and under his Attorney General, Eric Holder. Gun manufacturers and dealers were debanked, right-wing outlets like Gateway Pundit were debanked. Religious organizations were debanked. Under Biden, Donald Trump and Melania Trump were debanked.
After President Trump issued the executive order, major bank executives said they were pressured by the Obama and Biden administrations to deny services for political reasons.
Two bank executives spoke to Fox News anonymously.
“Those pressures were very, very real. When your regulator gives you a suggestion, it’s not a suggestion; it’s an order. The political stuff is very real; those pressures are real,” a senior banking executive told Fox News Digital.
Operation Choke Point 2.0
The executives said that ambiguity in federal laws was exploited by regulators under the Obama and Biden administrations. They did it to pursue political objectives. One executive stated that regulators pressured banks to deny services to specific industries during Operation Choke Point and Operation Choke Point 2.0.