The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is about to release findings from a sweeping investigation into whether major US banks shut down customer accounts for political reasons. The probe, which targets some of the largest financial institutions in the country, could force a reckoning with practices that crypto founders and conservative business owners have complained about for years.

The review was triggered by an executive order President Donald Trump signed in 2025, directing regulators to examine claims that banks denied services based on customers’ religious or political beliefs. Banks including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are among those under the OCC’s microscope, while Wells Fargo has received subpoenas as part of parallel Department of Justice inquiries.

What the probe is actually about

The concept at the center of all this is “debanking,” which is exactly what it sounds like: financial institutions closing accounts or refusing to open them, allegedly because they don’t like the customer’s politics, industry, or public profile.

Trump has framed this investigation as a direct response to what he calls “Operation Choke Point 2.0.” The original Operation Choke Point was an Obama-era DOJ initiative that pressured banks to cut ties with legal but politically disfavored businesses, including payday lenders and gun dealers. Trump argues a similar, informal version targeted conservatives and businesses in sectors like firearms and cryptocurrency during the Biden administration.

The banks, for their part, have maintained that any account closures were driven by standard risk management protocols, not political bias.

Why crypto cares deeply about this

Regulators have already taken one concrete step that the industry views favorably. The OCC and other banking regulators have indicated they will no longer use “reputational risk” as a factor in bank examinations. Reputational risk was the mechanism through which regulators could effectively discourage banks from serving entire industries without issuing an explicit ban. A bank examiner could flag a relationship with a crypto company as a “reputational risk,” and the bank, not wanting to invite further scrutiny, would quietly close the account. Removing that lever from the examination process is a structural change in how banking oversight works.

The stakes for banks and investors

The OCC’s review carries the possibility of disciplinary measures against banks found to have engaged in politically motivated closures. The range of options available to the OCC includes everything from formal enforcement actions to public disclosures.