The longest relationship I had in my life was ending, and this was something that I found out recently. Wells Fargo decided to send me a letter via the mail, stating that they were ending their relationship.

The plain white envelope that bore the Wells Fargo logo on it may have been overlooked and mixed in with junk mail. The lack of warning on the envelope caught my attention. When I opened the letter, confusion set in. The letter stated that after reviewing our relationship in connection with the bank’s responsibilities to manage risk, they would be closing my bank accounts. After thirty years together, through thick and thin, my bank was dumping me because I’m somehow now labeled a risk. Although this isn’t the first time that a business or adult performer has been expelled from a bank, it was the first.

When I first saw this letter, my first thought was whether it was fake. After all, I’ve never bounced a check, I’ve never overdrafted or had any type of issue in the past. I had absolutely nothing in my bank history that would justify my newfound risk factor. So, I suspected the letter might be a hoax. I decided to call the number provided in the letter instead. I also called the customer service number to confirm it was Wells Fargo. After only a few seconds, the service representative informed me that the letter was true. I waited almost thirty minutes for a representative from their risk-assessment group to call me. After going through my identifying information, the agent informed me that my call was being monitored and recorded. I proudly repeated the same sentence to the rep as it was being recorded.

As the risk agent was on the line and she knew she would be recorded, I was able to ask questions. When I asked the agent why my account was being shut down, she incorrectly replied that it was a random closure. My account was being closed after almost thirty years of service. I continued pressing the agent, who said that Wells Fargo had made a business decision to close my account and it would be final. I requested to speak with a supervisor. Imagine my frustration and anger. Wells Fargo refused to tell me what reason they had and that was the end of that—or so they thought.

This breakup felt more like discrimination as a union leader than a business decision. Online companies like OnlyFans offer me deposits as a performer and content creator. My deposits are a direct link to the online platforms where my adult content is shared and posted. My checks from production companies were often the dead giveaway as I was an actress in adult films. The company name would be used to notify the teller about my large check. Sometimes the subject line would also include the name and film of the production. This would make bank tellers mistreat us and harass workers who were just trying to get their paychecks. This problem was solved when we switched to online work. Direct deposits eliminated it. We didn’t have the snarling face of an upset, underpaid bank employee judging us anymore. This was a temporary improvement but it could be one of the reasons for this current problem.

Fenix International is the parent company of millions of users who upload and sell their content through OnlyFans. This isn’t an issue adult platforms usually face, as most fly under the radar with a different business name used to run their day-to-day operations such as payroll. Imagine being able search Fenix for the recipients of any deposits to make a list all employees on a platform. A bank like Wells Fargo can quickly identify customers who are involved in legal sexual work and then remove them all.

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A bank like Wells Fargo can quickly identify customers who are involved in legal sexual work and then remove them all.

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My social media pages are a way for me to vent, as many people do. I was angry and sad so I made a video about it. My eyes welled up with tears, and I began to tell my story. Soon, I learned that other adult members in my community had lost their accounts and received the same letter. My story became everyone’s story. Many sex workers began to share their horror stories about banking, not just with Wells Fargo but also other major banks like Chase, Capital One and others. Within the last year, it seems as if hundreds of legal sex workers were being flagged and losing their access to banking in the name of “risk assessment.”

The concerns about possible discrimination and account closures reached dozens of news outlets, demonstrating an extraordinary amount of support for sex workers. A content creator named @TizzyEnt with 4.9million followers on TikTok created a video to share our story with his audience. This video highlighted the fight against our community, labeling us spicy content creators—as many do to prevent their videos from being shadowbanned. Even mainstream content creators need to be careful about what they talk about in order to protect their accounts. TizzyEnt’s video has been watched over 270,000 times on TikTok alone. Tizzy provided so much support for our cause that the conversation moved from adult industry workers to everyday citizens. Many Wells Fargo customers expressed their disgust at the company’s actions. They also declared that they would close their accounts in solidarity.

I waited patiently for word from Wells Fargo as the days passed. It had been several days since I’d originally spoken with their agents and had been told I would receive a response. Wednesday afternoon, I received an odd-looking letter in my mail. It came from Wells Fargo’s secure email service. After verifying the legitimacy of the email, I logged in to the system to view an update from Wells Fargo. The letter arrived unexpectedly. Wells Fargo is an inclusive company that accepts, respects and understands the differences of all people, according to the letter. They informed me that my account had been froze as of September 7, 2022 and apologized for any inconvenience caused. I couldn’t believe my eyes. This was real life!

My excitement lasted perhaps an hour. Soon after, I got a call from an unknown number in the Midwest. I was informed by the voice that the caller was Derek Flowers, vice president of Wells Fargo. I sent a letter to Mr. Flower’s office about this issue and requested a meeting. The new rep called to tell me bad news. The letter that was sent to me was incorrect, I was informed. I received the letter from a separate risk-management division that had originally cleared me for reinstatement. But Mr. Flowers was going to reverse this decision. I emailed Mr. Flowers asking why. I escalated my complaint to Mr. Flowers. By getting his office involved, they did their own “risk assessment” and deemed I was not going to be getting my account back. After the Wells Fargo risk-assessment agents had cleared my account, the man in charge of risk decided that I was now at risk. How could this be possible?

Banks are reluctant to do business in the adult industry as it is considered high-risk. Usually, account removals revolve around actual risk—not assumed risk. This is a problem that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is well aware of. The OCC published its final rule to guarantee fair access to banking on January 14, 2021. It could have changed how banks treat legal sex employees. Since Operation Choke Point, adult workers have been subject to discrimination in the banking sector. This policy blocking banking access for high-risk accounts affected performers, even when those workers didn’t violate banking policies or accounting rules. Bank of America, Citibank PayPal, Square, Chase, Square and PayPal have all lost accounts to performers and adult companies.

“The rule codifies more than a decade of OCC guidance stating that banks should conduct risk assessment of individual customers, rather than make broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers, when provisioning access to services, capital, and credit,” read the OCC ruling.

It continued: “As Comptrollers and staff in previous administrations have made clear in speeches, guidance, and testimony, banks should not terminate services to entire categories of customers without conducting individual risk assessments. It is not prudent to make decisions without conducting actual analysis. Moreover, elected officials should determine what is legal and illegal in our country.”

This ruling was supposed be in effect April 1, 2021. It was put into motion, but it was not implemented, preventing problems such as mine. The ruling was frozen much like my bank account. A new president was elected and a new Comptroller for the Currency was appointed. The matter was then put aside until it could again be evaluated and implemented. Michael J. Hsu currently serves as the comptroller.

When speaking at the Women in Housing & Finance Public Policy Luncheon, Comptroller Hsu stated, “Banking rests on trust and trust rests on our values, our conception of what is fair and unfair, what is right and what is wrong, what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. Achieving diversity and inclusion speaks to those values, which can build and sustain trust.”

Wells Fargo’s actions do not align with the OCC’s statements. This idea of fair, right and acceptable would be resisted if Wells Fargo decided to mass-remove legalized sex workers.

Although the Fair Access Rule has not been reviewed, it would have codified over a decade’s worth of OCC guidance that states banks should perform risk assessments of customers before granting them access to capital, services, or credit. The notice from the OCC regarding the hold, dated January 28, 2021, also states, “ The OCC’s long-standing supervisory guidance stating that banks should avoid termination of broad categories of customers without assessing individual risk remains in effect.”

This could mean that Wells Fargo’s assumed action of removing legal sex workers based on their occupation, not individual risk, goes against current OCC guidelines.

We are searching for better access to banking. But, our fight is heading to the legislators. We must push our representatives to advocate for the rights of our most marginalized communities as we seek to secure safe and fair banking. Tax-paying workers deserve protection from biases by big banks. Mastercard and Visa, the credit card giants, have already succumbed to pressure by refusing business to pornhub. The banks now focus on the most vulnerable target: workers trying to survive. My belief is that we have proven our strength time after time. We must continue fighting for fair and safe banking access until we prevail.

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