On Thursday, August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO), and accompanying White House Fact Sheet, with the intention, as described by the Fact Sheet, of ensuring that “Federal regulators do not promote policies and practices that allow financial institutions to deny or restrict services based on political beliefs, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities, ensuring fair access to banking for all Americans”. As described in the Fact Sheet, the Order directs Federal banking regulators to “remove reputational risk and other equivalent concepts that enable politicized or unlawful debanking from their guidance, examination manuals and other materials”.
In addition, among other things, the Order instructs SBA to, within 60 days of issuance of the EO, “give notice to all financial institutions with which it guarantees loans under its lending programs” requiring such institutions to (as described in the Fact Sheet) “make reasonable efforts to reinstate clients and potential clients previously denied services due to unlawful debanking“. The EO includes a list of specific tasks that SBA lender institutions must take within 120 days of the issuance of the EO.
Please see the EO and Fact Sheet for complete details. NAGGL will provide updates as we learn more about SBA’s implementation of the EO requirements relating to SBA lenders.
