[A] bank’s ability to block payments to a legal entity raises a troubling prospect. A handful of big banks could potentially bar any organization they disliked from the payments system, essentially cutting them off from the world economy.

[…]

Our concern is not specifically about payments to WikiLeaks. […] What would happen if a clutch of big banks decided that a particularly irksome blogger or other organization was “too risky”? What if they decided—one by one—to shut down financial access to a newspaper that was about to reveal irksome truths about their operations? This decision should not be left solely up to business-as-usual among the banks.

The New York Times, “Banks and WikiLeaks”