CU Insiders Respond to Trump’s Latest Executive Order: ‘Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans’

By W.B. King

As President Donald Trump sees it, bank regulators have used “supervisory scrutiny and other influence over regulated banks to direct or otherwise encourage politicized or unlawful debanking activities.” This was among writings in his August 7, 2025 executive order: Guaranteeing Fair Banking For All Americans.

“Individuals, their businesses, and their families have been subjected to debanking on the basis of their political affiliations, religious beliefs or lawful business activities, and have suffered frozen payrolls, debt and crushing interest, and other significant harms to their livelihoods, reputations, and financial well-being. Such practices are incompatible with a free society and the principle that the provision of banking services should be based on material, measurable, and justifiable risks,” the executive order read, which added a 120-day deadline for policy adoption.

“Such practices, when wielded to discriminate against customers and businesses in credit transactions due to their religion, are also unlawful under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691 et seq.),” the order continued. “They further undermine public trust in banking institutions and their regulators, discriminate against political beliefs and free expression of those beliefs, and weaponize a politicized regulatory state.”

Sabeh Samaha

For seasoned credit union insider Sabeh Samaha, the executive order serves as reiteration. “From a credit union perspective, this executive order only reinforces the industry's grassroots, transparent approach to consumer banking. This is not news to us—we live it,” he told Finopotamus.

“The credit union industry has survived and thrived by adhering to its 'people helping people' ethos, so I don't see how this executive order will impact our industry,” he said.

Remain Objective Under Regulatory Scrutiny

After reviewing the executive order, Dr. David Hatami, managing director and founder of EduPolicy.ai, told Finopotamus that credit unions face a familiar challenge: proving human decisions remain objective under regulatory scrutiny.

“The Fed gave you 120 days to demonstrate lending decisions are financially sound and not politically motivated—a kind of documentation imperative that regulated industries from healthcare to higher education know-all-to-well,” said Hatami. Based in Clearwater, Fla., EduPolicy.ai is comprised of educators, policymakers, and artificial intelligence (AI) experts that provide tailored solutions for research, policy development, ethics consultation, and technology integration.

“The credit industry already knows what sets it apart from the banking sector—your loan officers already know why they approve that small business loan. That would be decades of on-time payments, stable local employment, and reasonable debt ratios from your stakeholders,” Hatami continued. “What's missing here is the automated capture of that chain-of-reasoning behind solid decision making, all of which just needs to be translated into regulatory language. Thereby, creating an audit trail while respecting member privacy through proper data governance and ethical AI. This isn't about changing how you make lending decisions; this is about documenting the objective criteria you've always valued as an industry.”

No Need to Overcomplicate Regulation 

Samaha noted that in his 30 years of experience, neither he nor his company have experienced banking bias. “There is no technology program or platform at any credit union that I know of that identifies things like religion or race or gender as disqualifiers. Banking is made fair, as it always has been, by basing decisions on risk,” he said. “If there are outliers to this rule, I haven't seen it nor has my team.”

David Hatami

Large institutions, Hatami added, often overcomplicate regulatory challenges by “throwing money hand-over-fist at costly tech,” believing that investments in platforms like AI, for example, will mitigate problems.

“The 120-day timeline creates inevitable tension between thoroughness and speed; but the institutions that succeed will stop viewing documentation as bureaucratic burden and start seeing it as competitive proof of their financial acumen,” he continued. “When you combine personal service with transparent, documented decision-making, you will create something big banks struggle to replicate—trust—that's both felt and proven.”

Building on this premise, Samaha added: “We [in the credit union industry] are in the business of accepting people, not rejecting people.”