OCC Bulletins 2025-22 and 2025-23 clarify the agency’s approach to evaluating banks’ compliance with fair banking practices and protecting customers’ financial records.

By Betty M. Huber, Arthur S. Long, Parag Patel, Pia Naib, Ed Reynolds, Richard Reynolds, and Deric Behar

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)¹ published two bulletins (Bulletins 2025-22 and 2025-23) in September 2025 aimed at eliminating unlawful debanking in the federal banking system. Bulletins 2025-22 and 2025-23 are a response to key directives in the August 7, 2025, Executive Order 14331 (EO 14331), “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans” (see this Latham blog post), which called for bank regulators to identify financial institutions that have had any past or current formal or informal policies or practices conducive to unlawful debanking.

Pursuant to EO 14331, financial institutions must ensure that all decisions to provide or deny service are “made on the basis of individualized, objective, and risk-based analyses,” rather than political or religious beliefs, or engagement with certain disfavored but otherwise lawful business activities. The OCC has indicated that its regulated financial institutions should adjust their policies and procedures as necessary to align with EO 14331 in order to prevent unlawful debanking. Bulletins 2025-22 and 2025-23 give OCC-supervised institutions additional clarity on how the OCC intends to consider unlawful debanking in light of EO 14331.

Bulletin 2025-22

OCC Bulletin 2025-22 clarifies that unlawful banking will be taken into consideration when the OCC evaluates (i) licensing filings² by banks seeking to engage in various corporate activities or by entities seeking a federal charter or license and (ii) OCC-regulated banks’ records of performance under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The OCC will engage in a “holistic review” to evaluate “on a case-by-case basis” banks’ historical record and current policies and procedures designed to prevent unlawful practices, potentially affecting their licensing outcomes and CRA ratings. Under applicable statutes and regulations, the evaluative factors considered by the OCC for such licensing filings that may be affected by unlawful debanking by OCC-regulated banks include:

• The convenience and needs of the community to be served;
• Fair access to financial services;
• Fair treatment of customers; and
• The transaction’s effect on depositors, other creditors, and customers.

The OCC’s consideration of unlawful debanking in a bank’s licensing applications and CRA performance will be tailored to the size, complexity, and overall risk profile of the relevant bank. This approach may result in such considerations having a disproportionately negative impact on the larger, more complex OCC-regulated banks.

In assessing an insured bank’s performance under the CRA, the OCC considers the bank’s record of meeting the credit needs of its entire community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with the bank’s safe and sound operation. As part of this examination, whether a bank has engaged in politicized or unlawful debanking is a factor the OCC may consider, on a case-by-case basis, in determining the bank’s CRA rating.

Bulletin 2025-23

The OCC also issued Bulletin 2025-23, reminding supervised financial institutions of their legal obligations to safeguard customer financial records, unless disclosure is required by law under the Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA). Specifically, under the RFPA, financial institutions are not permitted to disclose a customer’s financial records to any government authority except in limited circumstances, and pursuant to:

• an authorization by the customer;
• an administrative subpoena or summons;
• a search warrant;
• a judicial subpoena; or
• a formal written request from a government agency if no administrative summons or subpoena authority is available.

Federal agencies must generally certify in writing that it has complied with its obligations under the RFPA, and provide the customer with “written notice of the government’s intent to acquire financial records, an explanation of the purpose of the request, and a statement regarding steps the customer may follow to protect the information.”

The OCC also reminds banks that although suspicious activity reports (SARs) under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations may be voluntarily filed with respect to “any suspicious transaction” that could be “relevant to the possible violation of law or regulation,” banks must not use such voluntary SAR filings “as a pretext to improperly disclose customers’ financial information or evade the RFPA.” Unless required by law, such as in the case of known or suspected federal criminal violation, a bank should only voluntarily file a SAR “where it identifies concrete suspicious activity.” Under the BSA, banks are required to develop risk-based policies and procedures to ensure compliance with AML regulations, including with respect to SAR filings, and therefore such policies and procedures may need to be adjusted in order to comply with Bulletin 2025-23.

Related OCC Actions

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould applauded the bulletins, emphasizing the OCC’s commitment “to end the weaponization of the financial system.”

The OCC noted that to further combat unlawful debanking in the financial sector, it has:

• requested information from its nine largest regulated institutions regarding their relevant activities;
• enhanced its online customer complaint platform to facilitate consumer reporting and agency identification of unlawful debanking practices;
• begun analyzing consumer complaint data and other sources to refine its examination efforts; and
• begun reviewing its BSA and AML supervision practices to ensure they do not foster unlawful debanking and will make changes accordingly.

The OCC also noted that, in the normal course of updating the booklets of the Comptroller’s Licensing Manual, the “Community Reinvestment Act Examination Procedures” booklet of the Comptroller’s Handbook, and relevant regulations, it will clarify related principles where appropriate.

Conclusion

Bulletins 2025-22 and 2025-23 and the OCC’s new initiatives mark a significant step toward its goal that the US federal banking system fulfills the mandate set forth by the Trump administration to remain impartial and accessible to all, regardless of political or religious affiliation. By clarifying its approach to align with EO 14331, the OCC aims to reinforce its commitment “to depoliticize banking” and eliminate discriminatory practices in the nation’s financial system, which could potentially result in a greater number of disapprovals by the OCC of licensing filings, lower CRA ratings, and adjustments by banks to their BSA/AML policies and procedures. 

---

1. The OCC is a federal agency within the US Department of the Treasury that charters, regulates, and supervises national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks to ensure they operate in a safe and sound manner and comply with laws and regulations. ↩︎
2. Such relevant filings include “new charters, conversions, fiduciary powers, branching, business combinations, voluntary liquidation, changes in control, changes in directors and senior executive officers, and substantial asset changes.”  ↩︎