UK regime’s debanking attack on Canary too much even for Trump administration

Lloyds bank’s debanking attack on the Canary has reached the US White House and drawn comment from Trump’s senior diplomacy official.

Trump’s sanction-attacks on Francesca Albanese and International Criminal Court officials to protect Israel have been widely and rightly condemned. But, surprisingly, Trump’s ‘Under-Secretary for Public Diplomacy’ Sarah B Rogers has condemned the financial attack on free speech and independent journalism.

In a post on her official X feed, Rogers said that the attack was clearly political and signalled a world that nobody should want to live in:

Any financial institution doing business in the United States should take care to comply with our regulations and guidance, including pursuant to Executive Order 14331.

Nobody should want to live in a world where you lose access to common transit carriage, housing, bank-card… https://t.co/6oDxHNe4mb

— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) July 1, 2026

It’s not the first time that Rogers has criticised the UK establishment’s war on freedom of speech, though Roger’s may feel motivated by Starmer’s censorship of US social media platforms.

Trump administration on ‘Politicised debanking’

But the post was more than a condemnation. The 2025 Executive Order 14331 bans “politicized or unlawful debanking”. Rogers was warning Lloyds that, as a bank that does huge business in the US, it had better start complying with US rules.

In its statement on EO14331, the US government’s ‘Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’ (OCC) said that it will take action against banks that use debanking politically:

“The OCC is taking steps to end the weaponization of the financial system,” said Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould. “We are working to root out bank activities that unlawfully debank or discriminate against customers on the basis of political or religious beliefs, or lawful business activities. If and when the OCC identifies such activity, it will take action to end it.”

In a bulletin to banks, the OCC clarifies how it considers politicized or unlawful debanking in certain licensing filings and in assessing banks’ records of performance under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Specifically, the OCC considers a bank’s past record and current policies and procedures to avoid engaging in politicized or unlawful debanking when the agency evaluates the applicable statutory and regulatory factors for licensing activities. Debanking considerations are also assessed in determining a bank’s CRA rating.

As part of its ongoing review to assess politicized or unlawful debanking and consistent with its tailored and risk-based approach to supervision, the OCC initially requested information from its nine largest regulated institutions regarding their debanking activities. The OCC also updated its online customer complaint website to assist consumer reporting and agency identification of any unlawful debanking by its regulated institutions. The OCC is reviewing its consumer complaint data and data from other government and third-party sources to further refine OCC examination efforts.

“Individuals may have been targeted and surveilled based on where they shop or what they believe in and, in some cases, unlawfully debanked,” Gould stated. “The OCC will not tolerate the misuse of customer financial records as a political tool. The OCC intends to work with other government agencies to ensure this conduct is identified and addressed.”

Ignored scandal

Lloyds has still not returned the significant sum of cash it has disappeared from the Canary’s vanished account, nor given any explanation of its action. Organisations and individuals that speak up for the Palestinians against Israel’s crimes have been increasingly targeted.

Far-right politician Nigel Farage was also targeted in 2023, although he was not denied banking generally and was refused a particular type of account. In a society where a bank account is essential for even basic functions, no one should be debanked.

Yet while the state-corporate media covered the Farage case intensively, it is currently ignoring the far more serious attack on the Canary. Lloyds has prevented the outlet from paying staff, pushing many of them into severe and immediate hardship and risk of homelessness.

Readers who wish to support the Canary during this crisis can do so here.

Featured image via the Canary