A new poll shows that conservatives are concerned state anti-debanking laws could force banks to work with pornographers or marijuana retailers.
A new poll shows a majority of conservative Americans are rightly concerned about politically motivated debanking, yet they remain skeptical about state legislative efforts to combat the problem.
Conservatives and Republicans have long argued they’ve been harmed by debanking, a phenomenon in which banks close accounts belonging to customers who may pose a reputational risk to financial institutions due to the customers’ political or religious beliefs. The action often comes without notice or explanation.
Nearly three-quarters of Republican primary voters say they’re deeply concerned about debanking, according to a poll conducted by the Tyson Group released Tuesday.
While respondents are concerned about banks cutting off conservatives from their services, they’re wary of legislative fixes that will strip banks entirely of their ability to control which clients they work with, since the same law that bars a bank from punishing political speech could also force that same bank to work with clients whose values cut against those of the institution, such as pornographers or marijuana retailers.
In fact, a majority of Republicans support the right of banks to make risk-based assessments when it comes to working with gambling operators (50 percent), foreign companies based in China or Russia (72 percent), pornography distributors (64 percent), and strip club operators (51 percent). Republican support for risk-based assessments of marijuana distributors stands at 48 percent.
Additionally, 74 percent agree banks should be able to choose their own clients without government interference when informed that anti-debanking legislation could require banks to work with organizations that undermine conservative principles, such as Planned Parenthood.
Florida and Tennessee have already enacted anti-debanking laws to ensure fair access, while at least ten other states are considering similar bills.
While the recent survey illustrates skepticism of state-level anti-debanking legislation among Republican voters, respondents remain open to addressing the issue at the federal level. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they trust President Donald Trump to address debanking, though the poll did not examine whether respondents prefer the issue to be handled via legislation or executive action.
Senator Tim Scott (R., S.C.), with unanimous support from his Republican colleagues on the Senate Banking Committee, introduced legislation last week to eliminate reputational risk in regulatory supervision of banks.
The main federal banking agencies — the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration — have incorporated reputational risk as a method to “prevent federally regulated depository institutions from providing financial services to industries that the agencies disfavor,” the GOP-led committee says in a factsheet detailing the bill.
By removing “reputational risk” as a category by which regulators assess banks’ compliance, the bill strips regulators of the power to pressure banks into refusing to work with politically disfavored clients, such as gun manufacturers. The bill does not, however, strip banks of the right to choose their own clients.
The Senate bill was backed by 26 state finance officials, who wrote in a letter that “the historical record reveals a troubling pattern of regulators intentionally misusing their authority to restrict access to banking and financial services for lawful yet disfavored customers.”
Scott’s Financial Integrity and Regulation Management (FIRM) Act targets the government regulators that supervise banks, not the banks themselves.
“It’s clear that federal regulators have abused reputational risk by carrying out a political agenda against federally legal businesses,” said Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. “This legislation, which eliminates all references to reputational risk in regulatory supervision, is the first step in ending debanking once and for all.”
In the early days of the second Trump administration, large banks are starting to move away from the practice.
JPMorgan Chase recently updated its code of conduct to end politicized debanking against customers for political or religious reasons. The move was celebrated by former Senator Sam Brownback (R., Kan.), whose bank account for his National Committee for Religious Freedom was canceled in 2022. Brownback, who also served as the governor of Kansas and ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom during the first Trump administration, fought back.
Other victims of debanking included a group of 30 tech founders, some of whom were involved in crypto and blockchain; Indigenous Advance Ministries, a Christian nonprofit serving Ugandan widows and orphans that was debanked by Bank of America in 2023; and First Lady Melania Trump, who recounted in her 2024 memoir how a bank stopped serving her and blocked her 18-year-old son, Barron, from opening a new account. She did not reveal the name of the bank.
Shortly after taking office in January, Trump called out JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan for debanking conservatives while addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, via livestream.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump told Moynihan. “They don’t take conservative business and I don’t know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what, but you and Jamie and everybody, I hope you open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong.”
Spokespeople for JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have denied the debanking allegations, claiming they don’t discriminate against customers for political or religious affiliations.