The War on Porn Regular Updates about the Assault on The Adult Industry
Related Articles
WASHINGTON — Federal banking regulators on Tuesday finalized a rule removing “reputation risk” as a factor in supervising financial institutions.
Under the new rule, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are barred from “criticizing or taking adverse action against an institution on the basis of reputation risk.” The rule also bars the agencies 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” based on a customer’s political, social, cultural or religious views, constitutionally protected speech, or lawful business activity viewed as presenting reputation risk.
The action follows an Aug. 7, 2025, executive order directing financial institutions not to deny or limit services to customers engaged in lawful activities on political grounds.
After that order, the OCC released a report on debanking that identified several sectors facing account closures or service restrictions, including the adult entertainment industry, citing concerns among banks about alignment with internal standards.
In March, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson issued warnings to payment processors such as PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard regarding practices that restrict access to services based on lawful but higher-risk activities.
The impact of the rule on industries that have reported difficulties accessing banking services remains uncertain. Although the OCC report identified adult entertainment as one of the affected sectors, regulators have not provided additional detail on how the new rule will be applied in practice.
While the rule prevents the OCC and FDIC from penalizing institutions for serving customers engaged in “politically disfavored but lawful business activities perceived to present reputation risk,” it does not limit banks’ ability to make decisions based on other supervisory considerations, including “safety and soundness.” Institutions may continue to restrict services under those criteria.
The Free Speech Coalition submitted comments in support of the proposed rule and recommended expanding its scope to apply more directly to banks. Those proposals were not adopted in the final version.
“The rule removes a key driver of banking discrimination against the adult industry,” said Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Alison Boden. “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.”
