Most Us Debanking Cases Stem From Government Pressure, Report Says (2026)
Cato Institute analyst Nicholas Anthony argues the US Congress needs to reform the Bank Secrecy Act, repeal confidentiality laws and end reputational risk regulation to address debanking.
The majority of debanking cases in the US are a result of government pressure, rather than individual banks’ policies, according to a new report from the American think tank the Cato Institute.
Cato Institute analyst Nicholas Anthony explained in a report on Thursday that debanking could take several forms: religious or political, the idea that a financial institution closes accounts solely due to political or religious belief or affiliation; operational, when a bank chooses to close a customer’s account as it’s no longer in the bank’s interest; or government, when a government pressures a financial institution to close a customer’s account.
“While media and political narratives often attribute these closures to political or religious discrimination, this study finds that the majority of debanking cases stem from governmental pressure,” he said.
Crypto firms have been facing account closures and denials of banking services for years, and many in the industry have speculated these actions are part of a policy-driven effort to suppress the digital assets sector, particularly by the Biden administration.
Anthony said government debanking can take two forms: direct, when it uses a letter or court order to order an account closure, or indirect, when lawmakers use regulations and legislation to force an account closure.
He cites the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sending letters to financial institutions ordering them to halt crypto-related activity as an example of direct action.
“Furthermore, the agency failed to provide a timeline or follow up with those financial institutions. So, in practice, these letters were effectively termination orders,” Anthony added.
In December, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon denied debanking customers based on their religious or political affiliation during an interview with Fox News. He also claimed both sides of politics in the US, Democrats and Republicans, were equal offenders when it came to leaning on banks to debank people.
In November, Jack Mallers, the CEO of the Bitcoin Lightning Network payments company Strike, accused JPMorgan of closing his personal accounts without explanation, and Houston Morgan, the head of marketing at non-custodial crypto trading platform ShapeShift, shared a similar story the same month.
Source: CoinTelegraph
