In April 2026, rumors spread that U.S. President Donald Trump has plans to issue an executive order requiring banks to collect proof of citizenship from their customers.
The claim circulated on Reddit, Facebook and Threads. Snopes readers asked us to verify whether Trump "is about to lock 157 million Americans out of their own bank accounts" due to an inability to prove citizenship. Some readers also asked about claims that the supposed incoming executive order would threaten women's banks accounts, as alleged in a popular Substack newsletter.
(Threads user @marikamt)
This rumor came from April 13 reporting by Semafor, a reputable news site launched by Justin B. Smith, the former CEO of Bloomberg Media, and Ben Smith, a former New York Times media columnist and founding editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News.
Semafor's report (archived) said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed during an April 13 interview with Ben Smith that an "executive order requiring banks to collect citizenship information on their customers" was "in process." The Semafor story followed previous credible reports citing anonymous sources who said the Trump administration was weighing such an executive order.
There were no indications Semafor's reporting was inaccurate, and Bessent defended the idea of issuing the aforementioned executive order during a filmed interview with CNBC, although he did not outright confirm that the executive order was coming. In an emailed statement, the White House did not confirm or deny the report.
"The Administration continues to explore ways to protect our banking system from unacceptable credit risks and to ensure that banking services remain available and affordable for all Americans," the White House said.
The Department of the Treasury did not immediately return an emailed request to confirm that Bessent spoke to Semafor. Snopes awaits a response in order to determine the claim's legitimacy with a rating. We rely on definitive primary evidence, not secondhand information, for all of our conclusions.
According to 2025 research from the University of Maryland, millions of Americans don't have easy access to proof of citizenship documents. As we previously reported, for many Americans, a birth certificate is their primary proof of citizenship, and many married women do not have birth certificates that match their current legal name, by virtue of using their husbands' last names.
Given that details of the alleged executive order have not been confirmed as of this writing, we cannot yet determine how the proof of citizenship requirement may affect women's bank accounts.
Origin of claim
Semafor's April 13 story came after the news outlet — and several other reputable publications — reported in February 2026 that the Trump administration was "considering requiring banks to collect proof of citizenship, like passports, from its customers."
The Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 24 that the administration might use an "executive order or other action" to issue the potential mandate to banks. Semafor's February report said the policy would be retroactive, meaning it would apply to preexisting banking customers, not just new ones, and REAL ID-compliant documents, which do not prove citizenship, would not be considered eligible.
These February stories from the Journal, Semafor (archived), CNN (archived) and others relied on anonymous sources. Semafor's April report was the first to quote a named administration official stating that the White House has plans to implement the citizenship information requirement on banks. According to Semafor, Bessent defended the reported executive order during a "23-minute interview at the Semafor World Economy's inaugural Treasury Secretary Dinner at the Library of Congress."
Semafor published a full transcript of the interview. Here's the excerpt where Bessent and Smith talk about the executive order (emphasis ours):
SMITH: A question on domestic policy: There was a report that there's a discussion of an executive order that would require banks collect citizenship information on their customers. Where does that stand?
BESSENT: It's in process, and I don't think it's unreasonable, because: Why don't we have information on who's in our banking system? I have a place in the UK; they want to know who lives in every apartment. And how do we know that it's not part of a foreign terrorist organization? Back to your friend from the IRS who says, "Don't worry about it."
Bessent defends idea to CNBC
In an April 15 interview with CNBC's Sara Eisen, Bessent appeared to nod when Eisen said, "You raised this idea of an executive order coming for banks this week." He then defended the concept of asking banks for citizenship information, but he did not explicitly confirm that Trump planned to issue an executive order about it.
Here's the relevant excerpt of the interview, starting at 16:14 in the full video on CNBC's website (emphasis ours):
EISEN: You raised this idea of an executive order coming for banks this week —
BESSENT: [Nods]
EISEN: — for banks to be reporting citizenship. And I did want to follow up on that, because I've talked to some of the bankers about that, and you might not be surprised to hear they don't think it's their job to have to report citizenship, especially because you don't need to be a citizen to open a bank account. So why are you doing —
BESSENT: Why — why is that? Why can anyone come and open a bank account? If Treasury and the banking regulators say it's their job, it's their job. So why — why can the unknown foreign nationals come and open a bank account? How do they know? What are bank executives' jobs is to know your customer. So, how do you know your customer if you don't know if they have legal or illegal status, whether a U.S. citizen or green card holder?
EISEN: So you think that there should be stricter rules around it?
BESSENT: Yes, there should be stricter rules.
Every other country does it. Every other country. I lived in the U.K. for a long time. The U.K. not only has strict banking laws, they had strict — they want to know who's in every apartment. I'd be going to register every year, it's called the "leave to remain."
CNBC said in its story (archived) that "overseas, citizenship information is more often required for banking access, but there is no universal mandate."
In sum …
Based on reporting from reputable news outlets and comments from Bessent, it's likely that Trump plans to issue an executive order mandating that banks collect proof of citizenship information from their customers. However, without definitive proof from primary evidence, this claim remains unrated as of this writing.