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News Release 2025-114 | December 1, 2025
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WASHINGTON—Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould today issued the following statement on the release of the report titled “Operation Chokepoint 2.0: Biden’s Debanking of Digital Assets,” issued by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee majority staff.
The congressional staff report on the Biden Administration’s coordinated effort to debank digital assets confirms what many have long suspected: the Biden Administration’s actions discouraged and prevented the institutions within the regulated banking system from engaging with digital assets. I commend Financial Services Committee Chairman Hill and his staff for shining a light on the politicization of banking which has hampered industry’s efforts to modernize, innovate, better serve their customers and contribute to the national economy. To provide transparency around the OCC’s prior requirement for non-supervisory objection before a national bank engaged in digital asset activities under Interpretive Letter 1179, the OCC recently published each formal bank request submitted and the agency’s response. Additionally, the OCC has removed references to reputation risk in its handbooks and guidance documents and, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, issued a proposal to codify the elimination of reputation risk from its supervisory programs. These actions eliminate one of the tools previously used by regulators to drive debanking. Consistent with the President’s Executive Order on Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans, the OCC continues its investigation into the role played by the largest banks in debanking digital asset customers or other legal businesses. The OCC intends to hold these banks accountable for any unlawful debanking activities it identifies, and to ensure OCC-supervised institutions provide access to financial services based on individualized, objective and risk-based analyses.
The congressional staff report on the Biden Administration’s coordinated effort to debank digital assets confirms what many have long suspected: the Biden Administration’s actions discouraged and prevented the institutions within the regulated banking system from engaging with digital assets. I commend Financial Services Committee Chairman Hill and his staff for shining a light on the politicization of banking which has hampered industry’s efforts to modernize, innovate, better serve their customers and contribute to the national economy.
To provide transparency around the OCC’s prior requirement for non-supervisory objection before a national bank engaged in digital asset activities under Interpretive Letter 1179, the OCC recently published each formal bank request submitted and the agency’s response. Additionally, the OCC has removed references to reputation risk in its handbooks and guidance documents and, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, issued a proposal to codify the elimination of reputation risk from its supervisory programs. These actions eliminate one of the tools previously used by regulators to drive debanking.
Consistent with the President’s Executive Order on Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans, the OCC continues its investigation into the role played by the largest banks in debanking digital asset customers or other legal businesses. The OCC intends to hold these banks accountable for any unlawful debanking activities it identifies, and to ensure OCC-supervised institutions provide access to financial services based on individualized, objective and risk-based analyses.
Stephanie Collins (202) 649-6870
