Americans for Financial Reform has been leading on opposition to the FIRM Act. This bill would force bank regulators to specifically disregard one category of significant financial risk – reputational risk – when assessing a bank for safety and soundness. Additionally, the bill would further eliminate bank regulators’ ability, now and into the future, to promulgate new rules or guidance that incorporate reputational risk to supervise or regulate depository institutions. This bill threatens to kick open the door to risky financing such as money laundering, financial fraud and exploitation, and national security threats that ultimately could put regular peoples’ savings and the financial system at risk.
The FIRM Act is an attempt to provide a special benefit to politically influential tech, crypto, and fossil fuel corporations by tying the hands of bank regulators so they cannot examine and address the full range of risks that businesses might pose.
AFR’s March 2025 coalition letter to the Senate Banking Committee opposing the FIRM Act (S. 875).
AFR’s May 2025 coalition letter to the House Financial Services Committee opposing FIRM (H.R. 2702).
Additional Resources
- AFR’s statement for the record that challenges the current co-opting of de-banking
- AFR’s blog: FIRM Act – Why It Should Worry You, And The “Debanking” Distraction
- Webinar: “What’s Behind Industry Cries of Alleged Debanking?” A conversation with Graham Steele, former Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
- AFR’s blog: The Crypto Debanking Lie Distracts From Crypto’s Defrauded Customers.