debank

English

Alternative forms

• de-bank

Etymology

From de- +‎ bank, partly (sense 1) by analogy with deplatform.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di(ː)ˈbæŋk/
• Rhymes: -æŋk

Verb

debank (third-person singular simple present debanks, present participle debanking, simple past and past participle debanked)

1. (transitive) To deprive a person or organisation of banking services, especially for political reasons. [from 2020s]
   • 2021 September 8, Sarah Danckert, “Bitcoin Babe refused by 91 banks, put on terrorism watchlist, ‘bullied’ by Austrac”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:

     Ms Juric said as well as debanking her business, banks had also debanked her personal accounts and the accounts of people she was related to or lived with.

   • 2023 March 15, Sam Brownback, Jeremy Tedesco, “Stop the Troubling Trend of Politically Motivated Debanking”, in Newsweek:

     Both of our organizations have had recent run-ins with debanking. The National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF)—a nonprofit advocacy group that exists to defend the right of everyone in America to live out their faith freely—opened a JPMorgan Chase checking account last April. A few weeks later, the bank shut down the account without explanation.

   • 2023 March 26, Keiko Yoshino, “Where the U.S. Government Went Wrong in Regulating Crypto”, in Yahoo Finance:

     However, recent regulatory announcements – including directives from the U.S. Federal Reserve and executive branch designed to debank crypto firms, a pending lawsuit against the largest and most trustworthy U.S. exchange, Coinbase, and increasingly hostile rhetoric from Congress – are far from appropriate.

   • 2023 July 28, Steerpike, “Has Gina Miller also fallen victim to ‘debanking’?”, in The Spectator:

     It might come as some small comfort to Nigel Farage to discover that it’s not just those on his side of the Brexit debate who have fallen victim to potential ‘debanking’.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To cease or cause to stop operating as a bank. [from 1980s]
   • 1985, John D. Hawke, Jr., Commentaries on Banking Regulation, →ISBN, page 394:

     Oil Company of Texas [was] a company with which the Board had been feuding for two years over its efforts to “debank” its subsidiary bank by purporting to abandon demand deposit-taking.

   • 1997, Simon Sijbrands, “The Internationalisation of Dutch Banks: New Beginning and Future Developments”, in Jack Revell, editor, The Recent Evolution of Financial Systems, →ISBN, page 261:

     After some years in which ING Group received dispensation from the US government it will now start to ‘debank’ (giving back its banking licence) its business in the US.

   • 1998, Hal S. Scott, Philip A. Wellons, International Finance: Transactions, Policy, and Regulation, →ISBN, page 179:

     As part of the transaction, [Bayerische Vereinsbank] planned to “debank,” that is end its backing operations in the U.S. […] It appeared, however, that various aspects of debanking would take a substantial period of time, for example liquidating its positions on letters of credit or guarantees issued on industrial revenue bonds.