The Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found some of the largest banks serving the U.S. allowed political considerations, public pressure and social concerns to influence decisions about who received banking services, according to a sweeping report released Wednesday.

The OCC said it reviewed the nine largest national banks under its supervision, examining nearly 100,000 complaints and about 420,000 pages of documents. It found that all nine had used “reputation risk” policies that lacked “clear,” “objective” standards and could disadvantage customers because of their political or religious views or lawful business activities.

“Banks should make decisions based on financial risk, not the political or social preferences of their employees or executives,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said, according to a transcript of his in remarks Wednesday in Lexington, Kentucky.

The findings may lend new regulatory weight to a grievance President Donald Trump has pressed since returning to office. Trump has repeatedly accused and sued major banks for discriminating against conservatives and has said he was personally “debanked” after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, claims banks have denied.

The report lands a day after the OCC and other Treasury regulators imposed more than $1.2 billion in penalties on Bank of America

The review covered JPMorgan Chase

The OCC stopped short of announcing fines or sanctions Wednesday, but said it is considering additional rules aimed at preventing political or religious discrimination.

Among the cases it highlighted: JPMorgan subsidiary WePay closed accounts belonging to merchants selling Trump and conservative merchandise. An internal screening list included terms such as “MAGA,” “Make America Great” and “America First,” even though the OCC found neither WePay nor JPMorgan had formal written standards for deciding when flagged material amounted to prohibited hate or violence.

JPMorgan told CNBC its policies prohibit discrimination based on political or religious views and said WePay’s process “did not meet our expectations.” The bank said it fixed the issue and has since shut down the business.

“We are not forcing these banks to serve every customer,” Gould said. “Instead, banks should evaluate every customer on objective, risk-based criteria.”

Citi declined to comment. The other banks did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The Bank Policy Institute, which represents large U.S. and foreign banks, said in a statement that the industry supports “clear and consistent standards that promote access while maintaining sound risk management,” adding that political or religious beliefs should not affect access to banking services.

The report also found examples cutting the other way politically.

Capital One declined relationships with an abortion-rights group after noting that about 95% of its political contributions went to Democrats, and with a public education group whose political arm endorsed only Democratic candidates. It also passed on a gun-rights group over concerns that banking it could look like an endorsement.

The practices extended beyond overtly political groups too, the report indicates.

The OCC found restrictions affecting firearms, fossil fuels, private prisons, tobacco and cryptocurrency, and said some banks’ appetite for those businesses shifted with the political climate — risking a “whipsaw” effect between administrations.

All nine banks told the OCC they have since revised or consolidated policies aimed at ensuring fair access. But the regulator said none has fully acknowledged past debanking decisions or created a comprehensive program to remediate affected customers.

Diesel prices are surging as midterms approach – and they are likely to stay high in the near future, according to analysts.

The International Energy Agency’s monthly report for October, released Wednesday, was the latest to predict that constraints on the diesel market will likely keep prices elevated into next year. The group warned that even if refineries step up production of diesel into the year-end, inventories will likely remain strained until the second half of 2027.

Last Friday, President Donald Trump unexpectedly paused sanctions on Russian diesel fuel and announced that he reached a deal with President Vladimir Putin in which the Kremlin would release 4.8 million metric tons of diesel, or nearly 36 million barrels, to the global market.

Over the weekend, he took to Truth Social to announce an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later accused Russia of attacking the country’s energy facilities.

The foreign policy developments come as rising fuel prices — particularly skyrocketing diesel — have become a major flashpoint ahead of this year’s midterm election. But releasing Russian diesel to the global market is unlikely to drop prices in the near term. A note from Goldman Sachs last week even predicted that diesel prices will remain high through 2027 as refineries struggle to meet demand.

Here’s what the numbers tell us so far:

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Wholesale diesel prices have more than doubled since the beginning of 2026 through the end of September as both the war in Iran and Russia’s war in Ukraine have dramatically cut global supply.

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Trump has insisted that the war in Ukraine is to blame for high diesel prices. On July 8, Russia banned diesel exports after Ukraine struck its refineries. In the U.S., the price of a gallon of diesel rose nearly 40% between July 6 and Sept. 22.

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However, the price of diesel had already jumped after the Iran war started and was still 20% above its prewar level when Russia instituted its export ban, making that tightening of supply feel that much more acute.

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Indeed, both conflicts have created major ripple effects across global energy markets causing major swings, sometimes daily.

BANGKOK — The International Monetary Fund’s leader has pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to reduce the deficit, cautioning that his strategy of depending on growth to control U.S. government debt falls short.

“Growth certainly helps, but it cannot achieve the needed adjustments quickly enough,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva stated Wednesday during a panel at the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok. “Some fiscal measures would be required.”

Georgieva noted that Bessent acknowledges federal deficits and overall debt have become “too high,” and that steps to improve the budget balance and cut debt are essential. However, she said, “the authorities are counting heavily on robust U.S. growth” to lower them.

Bessent and Trump administration officials have highlighted resilient economic expansion, fueled by the artificial-intelligence boom, manufacturing reshoring, and consumer tax cuts, as key instruments to strengthen the U.S. fiscal position.

“With 3% growth, we grow our way out of this,” Bessent remarked last month. He has contended that sustained growth above 3%, paired with spending restraint, could reduce the debt ratio and bend the debt-to-GDP curve downward.

U.S. federal debt has surpassed 100% of gross domestic product, a once unthinkable level, with the nation’s public debt exceeding $40 trillion and poised to surpass the post-World War II record.

Historically, the U.S. government has spent more than it collects in taxes, maintaining unbalanced budgets since President Bill Clinton briefly achieved a balanced budget in the 1990s. Debt-financed spending has accelerated sharply in recent years. Trump enacted tax cuts in his first term and approved the initial Covid relief packages in 2020, followed by President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus in 2021.

That federal spending helped avert a recession but also stoked inflation that continues to burden American households and businesses.

Prior to his appointment, Bessent had advocated for Trump to shrink the deficit to under 4% of GDP by the end of his term, and in August he suggested the U.S. budget deficit had likely peaked.

The U.S. Treasury market has been hammered this year as yields soared to multi-decade highs, with investors wagering that rising energy costs and massive AI spending will keep borrowing costs elevated. Benchmark 10-year yields hovered near their highest level since 2002, at around 5.2% on Wednesday.

Debt Continues to Mount

Although the budget figures for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 have not yet been published, the deficit is projected to exceed 6% of GDP, up from 5.8% in fiscal 2025.

“With the government running an annual budget deficit of 6 percent of GDP, the debt will increase by another $7 billion by the end of today—and each day after,” Benn Steil, senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in a Sept. 25 note.

Steil also cautioned that it would be “reckless” for Washington to claim the debt crisis is resolved by relying on unsupported projections, urging reforms to spending and revenue.

The IMF, which released its October World Economic Outlook on Tuesday, projects U.S. growth of 2.3% in both 2026 and 2027, and forecasts U.S. gross government debt reaching 142% of GDP by 2031.

IMF chief Georgieva has also called on governments to establish credible medium-term plans to contain deficits rather than counting on stronger growth alone, as global public debt approaches 100% of GDP before the decade’s end, the highest since World War II. Bessent reportedly skipped this week’s meetings due to “domestic engagements.”