Few things are as essential to participating in the American economy as a bank account. It is how workers get paid, how families save for a home, and how small businesses make payroll.

That is precisely why regulatory pressure on banks about who they serve should concern everyone, regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum.  Banks have no incentive to deny access to law-abiding customers.  However, regulators have exerted outside pressure for years, leaning on vague notions of “reputational risk” to force banks away from lawful but politically disfavored customers.  The targets change with the political winds and how is in power.  The principle at stake does not.

What often gets lost in these debates: banks are already required by law to make decisions based on objective, individualized, risk-based assessments — legal risk, credit risk, market risk, regulatory exposure. Personal beliefs and political affiliations should have no place on that list. 

Washington has recently moved to reinforce that standard. Federal banking regulators have begun stripping subjective “reputation risk” criteria from their supervisory guidance, and an executive order signed last year directs that banking decisions rest on individualized, objective analysis rather than a customer’s beliefs or associations. Whatever one thinks of any particular administration, the underlying principle is sound and should be maintained through future administrations.  

History shows who gets hurt first when access to finance becomes conditional: those with the least power. Immigrant families, minority-owned small businesses, and working-class communities have long fought for a foothold in the financial mainstream.  For example, nearly 40 percent of Hispanic small-business owners already report that access to financing is a major barrier, more than double the rate of their white counterparts.  A poisoned financial system where access is restricted by overzealous bureaucrats’ subjective notions of risk or political operatives’ ideological biases not only hurts these communities but the American economy at large.

If we want an economy that works for everyone, we must defend a simple rule: no regulator, no politician, and no pressure campaign should push banks to close accounts for any reason other than material financial risk. Banks are open to all customers — and it must stay that way.