Agency Takes Decisive Action to Enforce President’s Directive to Stop Financial Discrimination
Published on WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) sent a letter to its network of over 5,000 lenders instructing them to end politicized or unlawful banking practices. Pursuant to Executive Order 14331, “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,” SBA is requiring all lenders to stop the practice of Obama- and Biden-era debanking, and to reinstate otherwise qualified customers who were wrongfully denied access to financial services on the basis of political, religious, or ideological beliefs. Lenders who fail to comply with these directives will lose their good standing with the SBA and will be subject to additional punitive measures.
“Since the Obama Administration, financial institutions have – both independently and at the direction of federal regulators – weaponized the banking system against Americans who refused to bend the knee to a partisan ideology. Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, whose own family and businesses were debanked, those days are over,” said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. “This Administration is putting an end to the discriminatory debanking practices that have cost too many hardworking Americans their businesses or the opportunity to start one. Access to banking should not be a partisan issue – but far too many confirmed debanking cases have targeted right-leaning businesses, non-profits, and people – including Christian, pro-life, and Second Amendment organizations.
“Any bank that retaliates against otherwise eligible customers on the basis of reputational, religious, ideological, or political beliefs will be held to account,” Loeffler continued. “The SBA is committed to protecting access to financial services for small businesses, and we are grateful to President Trump and other federal regulators for working together to end this wrongful practice.”
Both the Obama and Biden Administrations systematically pressured America’s financial institutions to engage in debanking – encouraging them to freeze or close accounts, deny loans, or refuse services to lawful businesses and individuals as a form of political retribution. Until recently, most bank executives never exposed or attempted to stop this coercion – choosing instead to ignore, yield, or join federal regulators in the systemic effort to deny banking services to ideological opponents.
