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The Comptroller of the Currency says the nation's nine largest banks denied financial services to customers based on their political, religious, or social beliefs, according to a regulatory review released Wednesday.

The OCC reviewed nearly 100,000 complaints and received approximately 50,000 documents from JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and BMO Bank regarding their policies, procedures, practices, and individual customer decisions.

The federal banking watchdog determined that the banks' sweeping internal guidelines lacked objective, risk-based criteria, effectively shutting out legitimate customers and businesses based on ideological leanings rather than financial risk.

The OCC said its findings reveal a systematic effort within the banking sector to restrict access for politically sensitive industries through both public and nonpublic policies.

Federal regulators found that lenders restricted certain sectors' access to financial services, including oil and gas exploration; coal mining; firearms or ammunition manufacturing or distribution; construction or operation of detention facilities; and the manufacturing, distribution or online retail of tobacco or e-cigarettes.

The Trump administration has voiced growing concerns over "de-banking" and the use of the financial system to achieve social and political objectives.

"Today's report provides irrefutable evidence that the nation's largest banks have denied, debanked, and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses," said Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould. "Americans should have access to financial services regardless of their beliefs, affiliations, or political views. "

All nine banks report having reassessed the role of reputation risk in decisions to accept or terminate new customers, according to the OCC's report. Several banks said they had minimized reliance on reputation risk, and bank employees now must consider it in the context of other financial or business consequences, including credit risk, money laundering and terrorist financing risk.

The Bank Policy Institute, a lobbying group that represents the banks, said in a statement in reaction to the report, "We support efforts to establish clear and consistent standards that promote access while maintaining sound risk management, including the administration's recent efforts to prioritize supervisory attention on material financial risk and rather than reputational risk."

The group also noted it would continue to work with the administration and Congress on proposals that ensure that political or religious beliefs do not unfairly affect customers' access to banking services.

JPMorgan Chase said in a statement, "We take this seriously, learned from it, and improved the way we do business. We agree with the Administration on a broader point: years of operating in a regulatory environment that often second-guessed decisions contributed to a culture of caution across the banking industry. That system needs fixing."

The bank says its policies prohibit discrimination against customers based on political or religious views.

A spokesperson for Wells Fargo and Citigroup declined to comment on the OCC's report, while PNC said it was reviewing the findings.

Bank of America, U.S. Bank and Capital One had not responded for comment as of this writing.

The review was directed by President Trump's executive order, "Guaranteeing Fair Access to Banking for All Americans," to determine whether these banks' policies or practices required or influenced banks to deny or limit access to financial services to Americans because of their political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities.

The OCC is considering further actions and writing new rules to prevent banks from discriminating against customers or prospective customers based on their political or religious beliefs. The OCC is also coordinating its debanking review with the reviews of other federal and state partners.

"Notwithstanding certain efforts by the largest banks to rein in these practices, I am not confident that they will be enough," said Gould.

Jennifer Schonberger is a veteran financial journalist covering markets, the economy, and investing. At Yahoo Finance, she covers the Federal Reserve, Congress, the White House, the Treasury, the SEC, the economy, cryptocurrencies, and the intersection of Washington policy with finance. Follow her on X @Jenniferisms and on Instagram.

David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance covering the cryptocurrency and stock markets. Follow him on X at @DsHollers.

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