Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) has released a discussion draft of the Ensuring Fair Access to Banking Act, which aims to stop banks and regulators from denying services for political reasons. The proposed legislation sets out a federal fair access standard, enforcement measures, and reforms to how banks are examined and supervised.
“Too often, certain financial institutions or politically motivated regulators have pursued policies that cut off lawful industries they simply don’t like,” said Senator Tillis. “That kind of back-door policymaking undermines transparency, accountability, and Americans’ access to the financial system. This commonsense bill reins in those abuses, strengthens oversight of federal regulators, and restores fair access for legally operating businesses.”
Brian Knight, Senior Counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, commented: “Protecting the American people from debanking is essential to preserving our ability to meaningfully exercise our God-given and constitutionally protected rights. To achieve this, politicized debanking must be clearly prohibited, and that prohibition must be backed by adequate enforcement mechanisms. By the same token, banks should not be forced to become public utilities or face needless uncertainty. ADF appreciates Sen. Tillis’s thoughtful balancing of these concerns in his fair access proposal and would encourage support as the bill is prepared for introduction.”
Lawrence G. Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation stated: “Financial discrimination continues to be a challenge for the firearm industry. We appreciate Senator Tillis’s leadership to ensure our industry’s access to financial services in the marketplace is unencumbered by political discrimination. While considerable gains have been made by the Trump administration to end this devious practice, Congress has an equally important role to ensure free and fair access to financial services for lawful industries that cannot be reversed with the stroke of a pen by future administrations.”
Erik Rust from Bank Policy Institute added: “Access to banking products and services should not be influenced by politics. Unfortunately, regulatory overreach, supervisory discretion and a maze of overlapping rules have forced banks to choose between legal compliance and reaching more customers. We appreciate Senator Tillis’s hard work on The Ensuring Fair Access to Banking Act of 2025, which admirably seeks to remedy these concerns while still allowing banks to make risk-based business decisions. We are pleased that many of our Fair Access Principles were incorporated into the legislation, including a strong federal preemption provision, which would prevent banks from being forced to comply with multiple state laws that often conflict with each other and federal BSA/AML rules. BPI will continue to work with leaders in Congress and the Administration to ensure all Americans have fair access to the banking services they depend on.”
Summer Mersinger from Blockchain Association said: “Americans should never be denied access to financial services for exercising their First Amendment rights. Yet we’ve seen this troubling ‘debanking’ trend impact individuals and organizations across the political spectrum — including those in the digital asset industry. Blockchain Association has long championed efforts to end this discriminatory practice and ensure that the financial system treats lawful businesses and individuals fairly. While recent regulatory efforts to end this pernicious practice are a good start, we look forward to working with Senator Tillis and other lawmakers to codify equal banking access protections for all Americans into law.”
Cody Carbone at The Digital Chamber remarked: “The Digital Chamber is proud to support Senator Tillis’ Ensuring Fair Access to Banking Act, which would codify a national standard to ensure lawful blockchain and digital asset innovators cannot be debanked based on arbitrary or ideological risk classifications… Thank you to Senator Tillis for his leadership and we look forward to the bill’s eventual passage.”
Nic Carter from Castle Island Ventures observed: “Over the last decade, many different groups have been subject to waves of politically-motivated debanking… It’s clear that for this to end, a permanent legislative solution must be sought… This legislation tackles those issues while carefully retaining banks’ freedom… It’s the best solution I’ve seen…”
The background provided points out past actions such as Operation Choke Point during President Obama’s term targeting industries like firearms retailers through restricted banking access; similar approaches reportedly affected digital asset companies under President Biden.
The act proposes replacing various state laws with one national framework while maintaining necessary safeguards so banks can manage risk responsibly without political interference.
Senator Thom Tillis previously won election victories in North Carolina against Cal Cunningham in 2020 (48.7% vs 46.9%) and Kay Hagan in 2014 (48.8% vs 47.3%).
