OCC reviews crypto access policies at nine major banks

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is reviewing account-access policies at nine major national banks after finding that many restricted services for digital-asset issuers, exchanges and administrators between 2020 and September 2025.

The banks often cited financial-crime concerns. Restrictions ranged from outright bans to additional reviews and approval requirements, according to the OCC’s Oct. 14 findings.

The review covers JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank and BMO Bank. The OCC examined nearly 100,000 complaints and about 50,000 documents totaling roughly 420,000 pages in a broader inquiry into customer access across several industries.

In remarks on Oct. 14, Comptroller Jonathan Gould called for banks to assess customers using objective, risk-based criteria. Banks may still reject individual customers because of financial, operational, anti-money-laundering or sanctions risks. The OCC is questioning exclusions based on a business’s reputation or lawful line of work.

The review follows a final reputation-risk rule issued by the OCC and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on April 7. The rule took effect June 9 and limits how supervisors can pressure banks over customer relationships when concerns are based on public perception rather than a bank’s financial or operational condition.

The rule does not remove banks’ duties under the Bank Secrecy Act or sanctions requirements. Its explanation says supervisors may not use anti-money-laundering concerns as a pretext for reputation-risk supervision. The Office of Foreign Assets Control requires U.S. persons and others under its jurisdiction to apply the same rules to digital-currency transactions as to traditional-currency transactions.

The OCC’s existing procedures allow it to examine account-access decisions. A September 2025 bulletin said the agency may review banks’ debanking records and related policies when assessing licensing applications. Debanking may also be considered in Community Reinvestment Act ratings, based on a bank’s size, complexity and overall risk profile.

The agency updated its online complaint system in September 2025 and uses complaints and other data in its examinations. For crypto companies, the reviews can assess whether a bank’s stated reason for restricting an account is linked to the customer’s specific risks and the bank’s ability to manage them.

The Bank Policy Institute backed fair access and clear, consistent standards while calling for sound risk management. JPMorgan said its policies prohibit political and religious discrimination and that it corrected a WePay process that did not meet those standards.

The findings come as banks expand services for institutional digital-asset clients. On June 29, 2026, BNY announced services allowing institutional customers to hold USDC in the bank’s custody and instruct Circle through BNY to mint USDC from dollars or redeem USDC for dollars.

The service connects digital-asset custody with the dollar transactions behind stablecoins. Access for smaller crypto issuers and exchanges remains subject to each bank’s customer assessment, operational capacity and compliance requirements.