United States President Donald Trump has blamed the Biden administration for debanking crypto companies. In his statement, Trump said that the move was a “very bad and very dangerous” practice that was instigated by the Biden administration and it still remains a problem in the country.
“There is a lot of debanking,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday evening, in response to a question from the media. “Those people are very bad and very dangerous, and they shouldn’t be doing it.”
Debanking is an alleged practice where banks deny customers services based on their affiliation with industries like crypto or their political choices. Crypto industry leaders have argued that during the Biden administration, they were denied standard banking services. Conservative public figures, including Donald Trump and his family, have also made similar claims.
Donald Trump blames the Biden administration for debanking
Speaking about his previous experience under the tenure of former US President Joe Biden, Trump said, “I can tell you, because I’ve been a victim myself because of my politics, that big banks were very nasty to us.” He added that he feels Biden’s people were the major influence in the decision, noting that the banks were always afraid of regulations. The president said he does not blame the big banks for such practices, noting that it was the fault of federal agencies overseeing the industry.
“I’ve seen the biggest banker, I can tell you—you see him on television all the time. If a regulator walked into the room, he gets all nervous and crazy,” Trump said. “The regulators control the banks. It’s not the president of the bank. The president of the bank is far less important to a bank than a regulator, and a regulator can put that bank out of business.”
Trump was asked whether he intends to sign an executive order targeting debanking. Such an order expected to instruct federal bank regulators, including the Federal Reserve, not to deny services to certain groups or individuals. The Trump administration planned to sign an executive order addressing the issue back in March, however, the plan was shelved, at least temporarily.
According to reports, the proposal may be back in action, with a report from the Wall Street Journal noting that officials are discussing the issuance of an executive order that will focus on addressing debanking. When asked about such plans, the president did not confirm them, but he did say that the problem of debanking persists in the United States, even since he was sworn in for his second term.
Since Trump’s inauguration, federal banking agencies under his control have released documents appearing to confirm the existence of previous orders from the same regulators discouraging member banks from offering crypto services.
“The documents that we are releasing today show that requests from these banks were almost universally met with resistance,” Travis Hill, the acting chairman of the FDIC at the time said. “These and other actions sent the message to banks that it would be extraordinarily difficult—if not impossible—to move forward,” he added.
In one letter, an FDIC appointee mentioned that a bank’s board of directors had closed all the deposit accounts belonging to an entity. While the firm in question was not specifically mentioned, it was referred to as an entity with crypto affiliation. The letter also asked for additional information on the bank’s internal authorization to engage with up to three additional crypto firms. The documents were released shortly before Senate lawmakers began a scheduled hearing on debanking.
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