The nation’s largest banks are finally facing accountability for their systematic discrimination against the firearm industry. A top banking regulator released findings on December 10, 2025 revealing that nine of America’s biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, improperly refused to do business with politically sensitive industries ranging from oil and gas to firearms manufacturers, per a report by the Wall Street Journal. The revelations vindicate years of complaints from gun rights advocates who watched financial institutions weaponize their market power against constitutionally protected commerce.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency report stems from an investigation substantiating claims by President Donald Trump that the largest banks engaged in what the administration terms “politicized or unlawful debanking activities.” The findings represent a watershed moment for the firearm industry, which has endured financial blacklisting despite operating within a lawful and highly regulated framework.
“It is unfortunate that the nation’s largest banks thought these harmful debanking policies were an appropriate use of their government-granted charter and market power,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, a Trump appointee, said in a statement. The report indicates the investigation continues and that the OCC could ultimately refer its findings to the Attorney General.
Banks have consistently claimed they don’t close accounts for religious or political reasons, asserting that decisions to avoid certain industries or clients accord with laws making banks watchdogs for criminal activity and money laundering or respond to other regulatory pressures meant to safeguard the banks. These explanations ring hollow, given the OCC’s preliminary findings.
The Bank Policy Institute, a lobbying group, said on December 10 that the industry supports creating new rules to ensure fair access to banking. “It’s in banks’ best interest to take deposits, lend to and support as many consumers and businesses as possible to drive economic growth,” the group stated. This sudden embrace of neutrality marks a dramatic reversal from years of politically motivated account closures.
The White House in August issued an executive order accusing banks of discriminating against conservatives and cryptocurrency companies and threatening fines for lenders that dropped customers for political reasons. Trump has said he and his businesses were debanked after his first term in office and the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
The OCC released preliminary findings on December 10 after asking the nine largest banks under its purview to submit reports on whether they had engaged in unlawful debanking. The report targets environmental or sustainability-related decisions that banks made in prior years in an effort to appease investors who said the industry needed to do more to address climate change and racial inequality. It stopped short of directly calling those actions unlawful.
“While many of these policies were undertaken in plain sight and even announced publicly, certain banks have continued to insist that they did not engage in debanking,” Gould said. “Going forward, the OCC will hold banks accountable for these actions and ensure unlawful debanking does not continue.”
Debanking in the firearms sector is nothing new and it has been one front where gun rights activists have had to confront the gun control crowd. As Ammoland previously reported, big banks are beginning to yield to the Trump administration pressure over discrimination against the firearm industry. So much so that even The Wall Street Journal is taking notice that banks are gradually changing their anti-gun policies.
As Ammoland previously noted, debanking has been a perennial challenge for gun owners. After losing battles in state legislatures and courtrooms, anti-hunting and anti-animal agriculture activists shifted tactics by pressuring major financial institutions to accomplish what they could not achieve through voter-approved laws or judicial challenges.
While President Trump worked to persuade major banks to end politics based lending protocols that targeted politically disfavored industries including the lawful firearm sector, anti-hunting animal rights groups campaigned to push those same institutions back toward policies denying banking services to businesses they find objectionable.
Since then, meetings occurred between JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, as well as other big bank representatives, and officials in Texas and Oklahoma. These are the same banking institutions that had, and some continue to have, policies refusing banking services to firearm-related businesses.
Citigroup recently recanted its anti-gun positions and publicly stated it would conduct business based on financial risk instead of the ill-defined “reputational risk” that banks used to justify freezing out gun and ammunition businesses.
The OCC’s findings are significant. Banks that spent years discriminating against the firearm industry under the guise of environmental and social governance now face potential legal consequences. The investigation confirms what gun rights advocates have long maintained. Major financial institutions abused their government-granted charters to impose political preferences on lawful commerce, targeting industries they oppose while claiming neutrality.
About José Niño
José Niño is a freelance writer based in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can contact him via Facebook and X/Twitter. Subscribe to his Substack newsletter by visiting “Jose Nino Unfiltered” on Substack.com.
