Barr pushes legislation aimed at ending ‘debanking’

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — U.S. Rep. Andy Barr is pushing legislation aimed at stopping federal banking regulators from using political, religious or ideological considerations to restrict financial services to lawful businesses and individuals.

Barr discussed the issue in Lexington alongside the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, the administrator of the federal banking system on Wednesday. The two described “debanking” as a discriminatory practice that has affected certain types of businesses.

“Many law-abiding businesses in the country, in the fossil energy sector - but also in small-dollar lending, in crypto, in firearms, in the pawn broker business and pawn shops - all of these businesses faced similar discrimination,” Barr said.

Barr has previously introduced the bipartisan Financial Integrity and Regulation Management Act, or FIRM Act, in Congress. The legislation would prohibit federal banking regulators from using “reputational risk” as a justification to deny financial services to lawful businesses or individuals.

Barr said the legislation is intended to keep banking supervision focused on legitimate financial risks rather than political agendas.

“There should not be blue banks or red banks,” Barr said. “Banks should not represent the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee. They should represent Americans, and they should bank all Americans without discrimination.”

Barr said the legislation is ultimately about eliminating political bias from bank supervision.

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