The letter is only a few lines long. The bank "has decided to end the relationship". The account will be closed in two months, with no detailed reason. Your next creator payout is due in three weeks. Your PSP, the provider that collects card payments for you, pays your revenue into this account. And you remember that opening an account elsewhere took months the first time.
If you run an adult content platform or a creator marketplace, this scenario is common. Here is the short answer. Sometimes the bank is simply applying a policy set for your whole sector, and there is little you can do. But often, it closes the account because it cannot explain to its own compliance team what happens on your platform. It wants to know who the creators are, whether they consented and who really gets the money. Those three points are in your hands.
This article explains what the bank is trying to understand, what has changed recently and what we would do in your place.
What did the US banking regulator just say?
The OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) supervises large national banks in the United States. On October 14, 2026, it published its final report on "debanking", meaning closing accounts or refusing banking services. The OCC reviewed nine large banks, covering the period from 2020 to September 2025. Its conclusion: their reputational risk policies lacked clear, objective and risk-based criteria. As a result, these policies could cut off clients whose activities were legal.
One detail matters for you. The preliminary report from December 2025 listed adult entertainment among the sectors these banks restricted. The final report no longer mentions it. Its list includes coal, firearms, tobacco and digital assets, among others. The report also finds no violation of the law and announces no penalties.
The lesson is simple: do not build your plan on a regulator coming to your rescue. Rules change, sometimes in your favor. In the United States, the OCC and the FDIC removed reputational risk from their supervision in April 2026. The FDIC is the federal agency that insures bank deposits.
In the United Kingdom, new rules have applied since April 28, 2026. A payment provider that wants to end a new open-ended contract must in principle give 90 days' notice. It must also explain its reasons. There are exceptions, for example in cases of money laundering or serious crime. And many business-to-business contracts can opt out of these rules.
In France, a company based in the country may be refused an account. It can then apply for the "right to an account" through the Banque de France, the French central bank. This is a safety net, but it only covers basic banking services. It gives access neither to card payment acceptance nor to an overdraft.
What you really control is what your bank can see of your platform.
Why does a bank close an adult platform's account?
Put yourself in the shoes of your bank's compliance officer. They see money coming in from your PSP. They see hundreds of transfers going out to creators, in several countries. They need to be able to answer three concerns.
Money from exploitation. This is the number one fear. In June 2026, the BBC investigated 60 UK creators. It described "managers" who took up to 70% of earnings and took control of accounts. Sometimes these managers also redirected payouts. Right after, the UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner called for a parliamentary inquiry. For a bank, the worst case is having been the pipe for money earned by an exploited person.
Illegal content. Your bank is not necessarily your acquirer, meaning the bank that processes your card payments. But it knows the card network rules. Since 2021, Mastercard has placed three requirements on adult merchants. They must verify the age and identity of the people who upload content and of those who appear in it. They must review content before it is published. And they must handle reports within seven business days at most. A single piece of illegal content can trigger an investigation, then a chain of closures: first the PSP, then the bank.
Money flows it cannot explain. Picture many outgoing transfers to recipients the bank does not know. For the bank, this is the profile that looks most like a money mule network. Mules are people who lend their account to move someone else's money. If no one on your side can prove who is behind each recipient, the bank picks the safest option for itself: leaving.
Note that age checks for your visitors do not appear on this list. They matter to regulators. But a bank worries first about what happens inside your platform, and about where the money goes.
What actually reassures a bank?
The same three questions that card networks and regulators ask, rephrased for a banker.
Who is behind each creator account? Every creator has proven their identity and age before publishing their first piece of content. So has every person who appears in the content. A ban is tied to the person's identity, not to an email address. That way, a banned creator does not come back under another username.
Did they all say yes? Every co-performer, meaning every other person in the content, has given written consent. This consent is archived and easy to find. When someone asks for content to be removed, your team handles the request quickly and keeps a record of the decision.
Who gets the money? This is the question that speaks most to a banker. A creator's earnings go only to an account in their own name, the one matching the verified identity. Some cases should raise a flag for your platform. For example: an IBAN (bank account number) in a third party's name, an account shared by several creators, or an "agency" that collects for ten people. These are not paperwork details. Your platform must spot these signals and act on them.
Having these rules in your terms of service is not enough. What makes the difference is being able to prove it in a few minutes. How many creators are verified? How many payouts have you blocked because the identity and the account did not match? How many reports have you handled, and how fast? How many bans?
What we would do if the letter arrived tomorrow
Read the letter and ask for a conversation. Ask for the reasons in writing. Also ask for a meeting with the compliance team, not just your account manager. Depending on the country and your contract, you may be entitled to a longer notice period or an explanation. Sometimes the decision rests on an incomplete file, and you can complete it.
Come with a file, not with arguments. Prepare two or three pages. Describe your business and your rules on creators, consent, moderation and payouts. Then add the figures from the previous section. A bank that is hesitating needs a document to show its committee, not a promise.
Never work around it. Do not route money through a personal account or another company. Do not use a vague business description to "hold on" while you find a solution either. That is exactly what turns a manageable closure into a lasting ban. And card networks punish merchants who hide their activity severely.
Tell your PSP before it finds out on its own. Your PSP needs a stable account to pay out your revenue. It is better for it to hear your plan from you.
Talk to your creators. If a payout has to be delayed, say so early and explain why. A creator who is warned stays. A creator who discovers a delay leaves, and talks about it.
Above all, do not wait for the next letter. Here is what we advise every adult platform. Keep a second banking relationship, open and active at all times. Set aside enough to cover several months of payouts. And update your bank-facing file every quarter. The day the letter arrives, you will be weeks ahead instead of weeks behind.
How Pleenk Approve can help
At its core, Pleenk Approve is a single digital identity. Every creator, co-performer, agency or affiliate is verified with a liveness check. Their identity is encrypted by Pleenk and stored in a single wallet, a digital identity wallet. Your platform receives proof, never the ID document. Everything is linked to this wallet: the person's accounts, their consents, the IBAN that receives their earnings and any bans. If an agency manages ten accounts, you see it. If an IBAN does not belong to the verified person, Certified Payment flags it. This gives you a consistent file to show your bank. Pleenk does not do sanctions list screening or anti-money laundering monitoring: those remain with your bank and your specialist partners. Have you just received a closure letter, or do you want to avoid getting one? Write to us at contact@pleenk.com: we will prepare your file with you.
This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. Banking rules, card network rules and regulations change. Have your choices reviewed by your lawyer and by your banking and payment partners.
Sources
- OCC – OCC Releases Report on Large Banks' Debanking Activities (October 14, 2026): https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2026/nr-occ-2026-90.html
- Sidley – Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Issues Final Report on Debanking (October 2026): https://www.sidley.com/en/insights/newsupdates/2026/10/office-of-the-comptroller-of-the-currency-issues-final-report-on-debanking
- Free Speech Coalition – FSC Statement on OCC Debanking Report (December 2025, preliminary report): https://www.freespeechcoalition.com/blog/fsc-statement-on-occ-debanking-report
- DLA Piper – Payment services and payment accounts: new termination rules (November 2025): https://www.dlapiper.com/en/insights/publications/2025/11/payment-services-and-payment-accounts
- La finance pour tous – The right to an account for businesses (in French): https://www.lafinancepourtous.com/pratique/banque/le-compte-bancaire/le-droit-au-compte/le-droit-au-compte-pour-les-entreprises/
- Banque de France – Right to an account form, legal entities (in French): https://www.banque-france.fr/system/files/2023-07/Banque%20de%20France%20%E2%80%93%20Particuliers%20-%20formulaire_dac_personne_morale.pdf
- AOL / PA – UK anti-slavery commissioner calls for public inquiry into 'exploitation' on OnlyFans (June 16, 2026): https://www.aol.com/articles/uk-anti-slavery-commissioner-calls-142514000.html
- Net Influencer – Investigation finds OnlyFans 'agents' threatening and exploiting creators (October 2026): https://www.netinfluencer.com/investigation-finds-onlyfans-agents-threatening-and-exploiting-creators-taking-up-to-70-percent-of-earnings/
- Mastercard – Protecting our network, protecting you: preventing illegal adult content (April 2021): https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2021/protecting-our-network-protecting-you-preventing-illegal-adult-content-on-our-network/