President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week aimed at combating discriminatory debanking. Federal regulators will now pursue preventative strategies and could potentially take action against financial institutions that have closed the accounts of organizations for political or religious reasons.

As a recent ECFA webinar explored, debanking has become a very real problem for Christ-centered churches and nonprofit ministries. The list of Christian organizations unexpectedly and unceremoniously throttled from their bank accounts by financial institutions is growing.

Notably, ECFA Vice President of Member Accountability Jake Lapp shared his own story during that webinar of being “completely blindsided” by a bank. He recalled the shock of receiving a late afternoon call shortly before Christmas and being “told that the bank has decided that we were too risky of a client and they were canceling us.” His ministry had 30 days to scramble and find a new financial home for its ministry funds.

“We didn’t do anything wrong, but here we’re being told that we pretty much did something wrong… that’s what it felt like.”

Lapp’s former ministry is not alone. Indeed, a “Protecting Your Ministry from Discriminatory Debanking” resource ECFA released last month in partnership with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) cites several examples. Among them is a prominent case of a Tennessee-based ministry serving widows, orphans, sex trafficking victims, and other in need in Uganda. Bank of America canceled its account in 2023 after determining it “no longer aligns with the bank’s risk tolerance."

Responding to such instances, the recent debanking executive order declares it to be U.S. policy that “no American should be denied access to financial services because of their constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views.” It specifically aims to discourage banks from being swayed into such discrimination by subjective “reputation risk” rules. Also, for financial institutions found to have policies or practices of discrimination, regulators may take “appropriate remedial action… including levying fines, issuing consent decrees, or imposing other disciplinary measures.”

Notably, perhaps as a harbinger of further attention to this matter on Capitol Hill, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) decried discriminatory debanking as “un-American” and called the executive order “a critical step towards protecting Americans’ access to financial services.”

“I’ll continue to work with President Trump to end the debanking of law-abiding Americans and federally legal businesses on the basis of their political or religious affiliations,” declared Scott.

ECFA will continue to monitor efforts to combat discriminatory debanking in Washington’s halls of power. Members are encouraged to explore the “Protecting Your Ministry from Discriminatory Debanking” resource that explains the nature of the de-banking threat and outlines practical steps churches and ministries can take to reduce the risk of becoming victims themselves.