WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Tuesday issued a final rule codifying the elimination of "reputation risk" as a criterion in their supervision of financial institutions.
The rule prohibits the agencies from “criticizing or taking adverse action against an institution on the basis of reputation risk,” and also from “requiring, instructing, or encouraging an institution to close an account, to refrain from providing an account, product, or service, or to modify or terminate any product or service on the basis of a person’s or entity’s political, social, cultural, or religious views or beliefs, constitutionally protected speech, or solely on the basis of politically disfavored but lawful business activities perceived to present reputation risk.”
As XBIZ reported last year, President Trump’s August 7, 2025, executive order on debanking prohibits banks, savings associations, credit unions or other financial service providers from restricting access to accounts, loans or other services on the basis of a customer’s lawful business activities “that the financial service provider disagrees with or disfavors for political reasons.”
Following that order, the OCC issued a report on debanking, in which it named adult entertainment as one of several sectors facing discrimination for engaging in activities contrary to banks’ “values.”
Last month, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson warned PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard against denying customers access to services based on lawful business activities perceived as high-risk.
It remains unclear, however, how much impact any of these actions will ultimately have on adult creators and businesses that have struggled with debanking. Although the adult industry is named in the OCC report, attitudes toward the industry within the Trump administration are far from positive, and language in the executive order makes it clear that the administration is mainly motivated by protecting conservative and right-wing people and groups from debanking. The OCC, the FTC and numerous banks have failed to respond to requests for comment or clarification, making it seem unlikely that protecting the industry will be a priority when it comes to enforcing anti-debanking rules.
Further, while the final rule announced Tuesday prohibits the OCC and FDIC from taking action against financial institutions they supervise for doing business with people or companies engaged in “politically disfavored but lawful business activities perceived to present reputation risk,” it does not directly prevent banks from making decisions regarding their customers in a way deemed consistent with “safety and soundness,” especially if the banks frame those decisions in terms other than reputation risk. This leaves broad leeway for banks to continue discriminatory or exclusionary practices toward adult industry creators and businesses.
The Free Speech Coalition's comment in support of the then-proposed rule included recommendations for how to strengthen it to apply to banks more directly. While those recommendations were not adopted, FSC still views the new rule as a win, according to FSC Executive Director Alison Boden.
"The rule removes a key driver of banking discrimination against the adult industry," Boden told XBIZ. "Federal examiners can no longer pressure banks to close accounts or deny services to lawful businesses based on reputation risk. It's not going to solve all of our problems, but it's a necessary piece of securing fair banking access for our industry."
