A major driver of debanking was banks, at the direction of regulators, taking so-called “reputational risk” into consideration when evaluating a clients’ suitability for access to banking services. The @federalreserve had a section in its Internal Implementation Handbook that directed staff to evaluate any activity or comments made by bank leadership that could be deemed “controversial” when evaluating access to a master account. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told the @BankingGOP last month that the agency would be taking that part out of the handbook. And as of yesterday, another banking regulator - the @USOCC - has officially axed reputational risk from its examination criteria. Key moves from the new administration to make sure debanking is a thing of the past.