FTC strikes out against 'debanking'

The Federal Trade Commission put four major payment platforms on notice not to deny access to people or companies due to their political or religious beliefs, a process known as "debanking."

The letters, sent to the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe raise concerns about publicly reported examples of debanking, such as Stripe's decision to stop processing payments for President Trump's campaign website following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

It follows an executive order signed by President Trump in August 2025 directing regulators to investigate access denial on political or religious grounds, and to impose fines on organizations that have been found to have done so.

"Full participation in commerce and public life necessarily requires that law-abiding individuals can access, and freely participate, in our financial system," FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson wrote in letters to the four companies.

In the letter to PayPal, Ferguson noted that the company had denied individuals access to its services due to their political or religious views, which could fly in the face of its terms of service. "Such conduct inflicts obvious and immeasurable harm on consumers and there are not readily apparent countervailing benefits to consumers or competition from such censorious action," Ferguson wrote.

"It is inconsistent with American values to deny law-abiding individuals the ability to run their legitimate businesses and feed their families because they attracted the ire of rogue American officials, overzealous activists, or, more worrying, foreign governments seeking to control public discourse," Ferguson said in letters to the four companies.

Ferguson warned that "deplatforming" customers or denying access to services "that is inconsistent with their terms of service or a customer's reasonable expectations" could lead to an FTC investigation and potential enforcement actions for violations of the FTC Act.

Harms not 'abstract'

"As an American citizen, I abhor and condemn any efforts to debank or otherwise deny law-abiding consumers access to financial services on the basis of their political or religious beliefs," Ferguson wrote. "The harms that stem from these actions are not abstract. Full participation in commerce and public life requires that law-abiding individuals can access, and freely participate in our financial system."

The FTC in recent years has brought numerous enforcement actions against payment infrastructure platforms and related entities for unfair and deceptive practices, including misleading merchants about contract terms and facilitating fraud on consumers, including through payment platforms.

The FTC is not the only federal agency on the case. Last year the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency went after several large banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Citibank, for restricting access to banking services by firearms businesses.

Trump also sued JPMorgan Chase for $5 billion earlier this year, alleging that the bank closed his accounts for political reasons following the Capitol riot.

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