Banking app PayPal has updated its policy after a religious freedom group raised concerns of people losing their accounts because of their religious and political beliefs.
The online platform’s guidelines previously stated that customers could be debanked and kicked off their platform for "hate", "intolerance" and "misleading information".
The change comes after the Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF) submitted a comment to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this July in the United States, warning that Christians could be debanked for lawfully held beliefs.
ADF presented evidence alleging that PayPal terminated or froze accounts due to political beliefs and statements.
Senior Counsel at ADF and Senior Vice President of the Counter-Censorship Task Force Jeremy Tedesco hailed the policy change as a step towards customers not being punished.
“Americans should never fear that their bank or financial services provider will cancel them or deny them service because of their religious beliefs or political views. PayPal has a history of mixing business with politics, and its customers pay the price when they are punished for holding views the company dislikes.
“Its commitments are an important step toward preventing the unfair debanking of its customers, and we’ll be watching to ensure these changes are implemented and applied fairly.”
The site’s old policy prohibited transactions which PayPal said promoted "hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory".
New rules link prohibited transactions to protected characteristics under law. PayPal’s guidelines also clarify the breadth of their "misleading information" clause, saying that it will only apply to communication about PayPal transactions.
ADF, in a statement after the guidelines changed, said that the accounts of conservative-aligned groups Free Speech Union and Moms for Liberty’s had been frozen in 2022.
The group argued that the old policy of debanking was breaching Executive Order 14331, implemented in August 2025 by President Donald Trump which was aimed to protect Americans against "politicized or unlawful debanking" in the words of the Trump administration.
In the UK, under the Equality Act 2010, the nine protected characteristics are: age, disability, marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and pregnancy and maternity.
PayPal is seeking FDIC deposit insurance from the US federal government for PayPal Bank, a proposed industrial bank in Utah.
ADF said it's now satisfied that suitable protections have been put in place.
A PayPal statement on their FAQ page reads: “PayPal reviews accounts fairly and consistently, making decisions based on account activity, not a customer’s religion, race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, or any characteristic protected under applicable law.”