States Require “Fair Access” to Financial Services

An increasing number of states have enacted or are considering enacting legislation requiring financial institutions to provide customers "fair access" to financial services. These fair access requirements, first appearing in Florida's House Bill 3 (2023), generally prohibit financial institutions from denying or canceling services to a person, or otherwise discriminating against a person in making available services, on the basis of enumerated factors, commonly including political opinions, religious beliefs, "social credit scores," or any factor that is not "quantitative, impartial, and risk-based." Compliance with fair access laws, including any related compliance attestation and customer complaint response requirements, may present challenges due to uncertainty regarding the scope of their application and interpretive questions regarding certain key terms, such as "social credit scores" and "quantitative, impartial and risk-based." In addition, if more states enact fair access laws, financial institutions may be required to comply with an increasing number of fair access laws that may be inconsistent from state to state.

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