The Trump administration was accused Thursday of giving a “parting gift” to fossil fuel companies with a finalized rule that seeks to prevent large financial institutions from refusing to lend to specific sectors in a purported effort to ensure “fair access.”

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced the finalized “Fair Access to Financial Services” rule less than two weeks after the public comment period ended. Roughly 35,700 comments were received, 31,290 of which were opposed to the proposal, the OCC said. 

The regulation, proposed in late November, covers banks with over $100 billion in assets and directs them to not refuse financial services unless “documented by measurable, empirical, quantifiable data evaluated under the bank’s established, impartial risk-management standards established in advance by the bankand.” The rule, Bloomberg reported,

is partly a response to 2018 announcements from firms, including Citigroup and Bank of America Corp., that they would stop doing business with some firearms makers—decisions that angered conservatives. Other lenders decided not to finance oil and gas companies that drill in the Arctic, prompting outrage from […]