PANews reported on March 7 that according to CoinDesk, the crypto industry's ongoing struggle against the deprivation of banking services for crypto companies and leaders has received legislative support from Tim Scott, a senior member of the U.S. Senate. Scott is pushing a bill to deprive federal banking regulators of the ability to use "reputational risk" as an excuse to steer banks away from customers. Republicans pointed out this problem area in recent congressional hearings, which explored how digital asset companies are systematically excluded from U.S. banking relationships because regulators (including the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) do not want them to get involved in the banking industry.

As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Scott has rallied his Republican colleagues on the panel to support the Financial Integrity and Regulatory Management Act, or FIRM Act. The bill would prohibit regulators from using the term "reputational risk" when assessing the safety and soundness of banks. "It is clear that federal regulators have abused reputational risk to advance a political agenda against legitimate federal businesses," Scott said in a statement on the bill. "This legislation eliminates all references to reputational risk from regulatory oversight and is the first step to ending bank deprivation once and for all."