Major Banks Closed Pro-Life Accounts After Biden Called Them “Hate Groups”
National | Steven Ertelt | Oct 14, 2026 | 10:33AM | Washington, DC
Major banks closed accounts and restricted services for pro-life organizations and Christian groups after materials from the Biden administration labeling them “hate groups” were circulated to financial institutions.
The Biden admin was exposed in 2024 trying to debank pro-life, conservative and Christian groups and endorsed a list of “hate groups” that includes mainstream conservative Christian organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council.
A new investigation of this has produced shocking results.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s report, “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,” reviewed nearly 100,000 complaints and tens of thousands of internal records from 2020 through September 2025 at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank, and BMO Bank.
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It found policies that denied or limited access based on political, religious, or social views, citing “reputation risk” from the Biden administration, negative press, protests, leftist advocacy groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, and potential regulatory pressure.
The banks specifically targeted Christian organizations over abortion, LGBTQ issues, and traditional family values.
JPMorgan Chase’s WePay closed the account of a religious organization after it was designated an “extremist hate group” by the SPLC; internal notes described it as a “right wing religious conservative non profit with strong anti LGBTQ rhetoric.” WePay also closed an account used by a devout Christian to fund a legal challenge to anti-discrimination laws.
PNC denied a line of credit to a media company in part because an owner funded Christian conservative groups the SPLC had labeled hate groups. Wells Fargo pressured a payment processor to end service to a religious nonprofit over its views on same-sex marriage.
These actions followed the circulation of a report titled “Bankrolling Bigotry: An Overview of the Online Funding Strategies of American Hate Groups.” The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network emailed it to leaders at major banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank.
Drawing on Southern Poverty Law Center designations, the report falsely listed pro-life and Christian organizations—Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty Counsel, the Family Research Council, the Ruth Institute, and the American College of Pediatricians—alongside white nationalist, white supremacist, and Holocaust denial groups. It urged platforms to restrict their access and recommended that Congress consider stripping them of tax-exempt status.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould said the findings provided “irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses.”
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Mark Paoletta stated, “It is appalling that these banks targeted American consumers for their political, social, or religious beliefs that did not align with the Biden Administration or its leftist allies. Many of those targeted were supporters of President Trump. These thuggish tactics… have no place in America.”
The CFPB has opened an investigation into possible violations of federal consumer financial laws.
The review followed President Trump’s August 7, 2025, executive order, which declared, “No American should be denied access to financial services because of their constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views.” Banks used SPLC designations in decisions; the SPLC was later indicted on federal fraud and money-laundering charges, and FBI Director Kash Patel has called it a “partisan smear machine.”
A JPMorgan Chase spokesman said of the WePay process, “A process used by WePay, a small technology company we acquired years ago and have since wound down, did not meet our expectations. We identified it, corrected it, and the business no longer operates… Our policies prohibit discrimination against customers based on political or religious views.”
The OCC said the banks’ claimed reforms were insufficient and that none fully acknowledged the “weaponization of finance against hardworking Americans.”
The findings show how organizations that have successfully defended free speech and religious freedom in the courts—while advocating for the unborn—were treated as equivalent to violent extremists, leading to the closure of accounts for their lawful work.
