Wall Street CEOs arrive at Washington to fix crypto debanking at the Hill

America’s most powerful banking executives have arrived in Washington for a high-stakes roundtable with senators on Capitol Hill, where debanking—the widespread closure of accounts tied to crypto, firearms, and other industries—is the only topic on the table.

The meeting, scheduled for today, brings together JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, Capital One’s Richard Fairbank, Wells Fargo’s Charles Scharf, U.S. Bank’s Andrew Cecere, PNC’s Bill Demchak, and Truist’s Bill Rogers.

The urgency comes after last week’s explosive Senate Banking Committee hearings, where lawmakers from both parties grilled regulators on the growing number of businesses losing access to financial services without warning. Crypto firms, in particular, have been hit hard, with banks abruptly cutting ties, leaving entire operations in limbo. Now, Wall Street’s biggest names are being forced to answer why.

Trump’s pressure and Wall Street’s denials collide on the Hill

President Donald Trump threw gasoline on the fire last month at the World Economic Forum, publicly accusing Bank of America of politically motivated account closures. Trump, addressing the crowd while Moynihan moderated, didn’t hold back, claiming conservative businesses and individuals had been targeted. Today, as he arrived for the roundtable, Moynihan dismissed those claims. “We bank everyone, thank you,” he told FOX Business.

Bank of America, along with JPMorgan and others, have consistently denied that political bias plays a role in their account closures. But the data says otherwise. Crypto businesses, gun manufacturers, and even state-legal cannabis companies have repeatedly reported being debanked with no clear explanation.

Jamie Dimon has been one of the few Wall Street executives to acknowledge the murkiness of the situation. Speaking on JPMorgan’s Unshakeables podcast last month, he called for greater transparency. “I think we should be allowed to tell you… When we report stuff, the federal government should probably know about it, and there should be far cleaner lines about what we have to do and what we don’t have to do,” Dimon said. “We’ve been complaining about this for years. We need to fix it.”

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Senator Elizabeth Warren, two lawmakers who rarely agree, both admitted last week that something has to be done. The solution, however, remains up in the air. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer has taken the most aggressive stance with his Fair Access to Banking Act, which has already gained 41 co-sponsors in the Senate. “I don’t want to require them to do certain things,” Cramer told FOX Business, “but I want to prohibit them from being able to categorically discriminate against entire industries.”

Federal Reserve and FDIC caught in the middle of crypto banking war

Regulators have now found themselves at the center of the crisis. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, testifying before the House Financial Services Committee this week, admitted to lawmakers that he’s deeply concerned about the wave of crypto debanking cases. “I, too, am troubled by the quantity of these reports,” Powell said in response to lawmakers demanding answers.

Powell didn’t dispute that banks are withdrawing from crypto, but he floated one theory—fear. “One theory is that banks are just very risk-averse,” he said, pointing to concerns over money laundering rules. But then, he made a bigger admission: the Fed is now reviewing its own policies internally. “We’re determined to take a fresh look at that,” Powell confirmed.

But the biggest bombshell isn’t coming from the Fed—it’s coming from the FDIC. On February 5, the agency released 175 internal documents exposing how banks that attempted to enter crypto were systematically delayed, ignored, or outright told to stop. These documents—internal emails, letters, and months of back-and-forth correspondence—confirm what crypto businesses have suspected for years: banks trying to work with digital assets were stonewalled at every turn.

Acting FDIC Chairman Travis Hill, who inherited the mess, didn’t mince words. He confirmed that previous FDIC leadership created an environment where banks felt crypto wasn’t welcome. “The vast majority of banks just stopped trying,” Hill admitted. He announced that the FDIC will now scrap Financial Institution Letter (FIL) 16-2022, a policy that had effectively forced banks to think twice before engaging with crypto companies.

The FDIC had already released 25 letters, dubbed “pause” orders, to 24 banks last year, instructing them to halt crypto-related expansion. But these newly revealed documents go much further, showing that many banks were met with months of silence after making crypto-related requests. Others received direct instructions to “pause, suspend, or refrain” from expanding into blockchain-based finance.

Powell also acknowledged that the Federal Reserve had previously issued policies pushing banks to scrutinize “controversial sectors” more aggressively. But those policies, he confirmed, are now being dismantled.

Meanwhile, the FDIC is scrambling to build a new regulatory framework that allows banks to engage with digital assets while maintaining stability. Hill confirmed that the agency is working closely with the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets—a task force set up under Trump’s January 2025 executive order—to rewrite the rulebook. The goal is to create a path for banks to participate in the digital asset space without getting caught in regulatory crossfire.

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