Feds Subpoena Wall Street Giants in Widening Debanking Investigation

The Justice Department has sent subpoenas to several of America’s largest banks as part of an investigation into alleged politically motivated debanking of clients, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday (June 10), citing unnamed sources.

Recipients of the subpoenas include Bank of America, JPMorganChase and Wells Fargo, according to the report.

Reached by PYMNTS, Wells Fargo declined to comment on the report.

Neither the Justice Department, Bank of America nor JPMorganChase immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

According to the WSJ report, the subpoenas are “far-ranging” and request information about whether the banks improperly closed accounts for political reasons.

The Justice Department is looking into whether banks may have violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, which covers bank-related fraud, or other laws, the report said.

Some of the subpoenas were sent last year, per the report.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on debanking in August 2025, saying he aimed to guarantee fair banking for all Americans.

The order requires federal banking regulators to review financial institutions for past or current policies encouraging debanking and to take remedial actions. It also requires them to review supervisory and complaint data for instances of debanking based on religion and to refer any such cases to the Attorney General, according to a White House fact sheet released along with the order.

Trump sued JPMorganChase and CEO Jamie Dimon for $5 billion in January, alleging that the financial institution debanked him and some of his companies for political reasons in 2021.

Fox Business reported at the time that the lawsuit accuses the defendants of “trade libel, violating Florida’s unfair and deceptive trade practices act, declaratory relief, and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”

JPMorganChase said in a Jan. 22 statement about the lawsuit that it believes the suit has no merit and that the bank will defend itself in court.

“Our company does not close accounts for political or religious reasons,” the statement said. “We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company. We regret having to do so, but often rules and regulatory expectations lead us to do so.”