In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) yesterday, a Department of Justice official formally confirmed that the agency has ended the controversial Operation Choke Point initiative, which under the Obama administration sought to curtail legal but politically disfavored businesses by working through bank regulators to pressure financial institutions to end customer relationships with those businesses.

A group of Republican lawmakers wrote to the heads of the Department of Justice, Federal Reserve and OCC today asking them to clarify their position on the DOJ’s Operation Choke Point, an Obama-era policy that seeks to curtail disfavored businesses by working through regulators to pressure banks to end customer relationships.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) today released the latest legislative text of his Financial Choice Act, a 600-page bill aimed at rolling back and reforming parts of the Dodd-Frank Act’s extensive supervisory regime, as well as providing regulatory relief for banks of all sizes.

In a letter to the OCC yesterday, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) took the agency to task for its continued involvement in the Department of Justice’s Operation Choke Point, which seeks to curtail disfavored businesses by working through regulators to pressure financial institutions to end customer relationships.

The FDIC’s proposed supervisory changes to expand banks’ exam appeals options are positive but not nearly enough to address exam fairness problems, ABA said in a comment letter today.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) yesterday introduced an ABA-supported bill intended to rein in the Justice Department’s Operation Choke Point, which sought to curtail disfavored businesses by working through regulators to pressure financial institutions to end customer relationships with these businesses.

In supervising banks that made tax refund anticipation loans, the FDIC made “aggressive and unprecedented” use of its supervisory powers and imposed “high costs” on institutions offering the legal products, according to a review issued today by the FDIC’s inspector general.

By a bipartisan 250-to-169 vote, the House today approved a bill that would end the Justice Department’s Operation Choke Point initiative, which sought to curtail disfavored businesses by working through regulators to pressure financial institutions to end customer relationships with these businesses.

The FDIC played an “inconsequential” role in the Justice Department’s Operation Choke Point, according to a report today from the agency’s independent inspector general.

ABA submitted a statement for the record in today’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on protecting consumer financial choices.