FTC Warns Payment Companies Against ‘Debanking’

The FTC has written four payment companies warning them not to deny service to customers based on political/religious beliefs.

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “warning letters” were sent to Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe on Thursday (March 26), citing “publicly reported” instances of customers being blocked from these companies’ services due to their views.

“Full participation in commerce and public life necessarily requires that law-abiding individuals can access, and freely participate in, our financial system,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a news release.

“It is inconsistent with American values to deny law-abiding individuals the ability to run their legitimate businesses and feed their families because they attracted the ire of rogue American officials, overzealous activists, or, more worryingly, foreign governments seeking to control public discourse.”

PYMNTS has contacted Visa, Mastercard and Stripe for comment but has not yet received a reply. A spokesperson for PayPal declined to comment.

The FTC’s letters tell the companies that any move to deplatform customers or deny them access to financial products or services could violate the FTC Act and lead to an investigation and potential enforcement action.

The letters are part of a larger campaign against so-called “debanking” by President Donald Trump and his administration. Among the examples of debanking referenced in the FTC’s letters were Stripe’s reported decision in 2021 to stop processing payments from the Trump campaign website following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump in January sued JPMorgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon for $5 billion, alleging that the banking giant had debanked him and some of his companies for political reasons in 2021.

JPMorgan Chase has said it believes the suit has no merit and that it will defend itself in court.

“Our company does not close accounts for political or religious reasons,” the bank said in a statement following the suit. “We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company.”

The issue predates Trump’s return to office. In 2004, investor Marc Andreessen alleged that the FinTech and crypto sectors — and dozens of companies backed by his namesake firm, Andreessen Horowitz — were being debanked for political reasons. A report by PYMNTS at the time argued that the issue might be more nuanced.

“After all, innovation typically moves faster than regulation, and the growing strain between traditional banks and future-fit FinTech and crypto firms can also be in part chalked up to the inevitable consequence of outdated regulatory frameworks, stricter know your customer and anti-money laundering standards, as well as heightened fraud risks,” that report said.