U.S. Senator Katie Britt Condemns Debanking Practices 

Our large institutions ‘need to stick to banking, not politics’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.), as a member of the Senate Banking Committee, participated in a hearing to investigate the causes of debanking, a discriminatory practice wherein law-abiding individuals and businesses are improperly denied access to financial services based on their political views or ideologies. Members discussed the regulatory pressure banks have faced by politicized regulators under the Biden Administration and stressed that banks themselves should stay out of climate and social policy.

In the hearing entitled, “Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America,” Senator Britt heard from multiple witnesses, including Stephen Gannon, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, and Mike Ring, President, CEO and Co-Founder of Old Glory Bank.

Senator Britt highlighted her concern about debanking, “It is no secret that our financial regulators have becoming increasingly politicized over the last four years . . . When you’re prioritizing a social agenda or a political one, instead of actually ensuring that people have an opportunity and access to the American Dream, we’ve got to call that for what it is. And obviously, our large institutions play a vital role in our country and our banking system. But they need to stick to that—banking, not politics . . . ”

She also recognized the vital role community banks and local credit unions play in serving communities through their relationship banking models, and as an alternative source of credit to those who have otherwise been denied. 

“I also just want to point out something that my colleagues have to hear me say all of the time, and that is just how grateful I am for our community, banks, and credit unions in Alabama that serve our local communities and give people access to the American dream, and remember that that is actually what they’re there for,” Senator Britt said. “So, thank you to them.”

As a cosponsor of Senator Kevin Cramer’s (R-N.Dak.) Fair Access to Banking Act, which protects fair access to financial services and ensures banks operate in a safe and sound manner, Senator Britt reiterated her intent to “get to the bottom and better understand what spurred this debanking, and why certain industries and conservative aligned groups have been targeted over others, and importantly, how we can prevent this moving forward.”

President Trump’s first administration finalized the Fair Access Rule, which stated banks should manage risk on a customer-by-customer basis centered on quantitative, risk-based factors, rather than making broad-based decisions when provisioning access to services, capital, and credit. President Biden’s administration immediately halted implementation of this commonsense rule following his inauguration, a fact Senator Britt pointed out in her remarks.

In 2024, small businesses made up 99.4% of all businesses in the state of Alabama and employed 46.7% of the state’s workforce. Senator Britt went on to ask about the “real-world impacts to a small, legally operating business” if denied access to our nation’s financial system. In response to the question, Mr. Ring underscored the incredible detriments of debanking stating, “if you can’t make payments and if you can’t bank, then you can’t exist in America. It’s happened in crypto, it’s happened in the Second Amendment space, it’s happened among conservative causes. You can’t exist without banking.”

A video of Senator Britt’s full line of questioning can be viewed here.

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