The CFPB’s proposal, its first attempt to regulate cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, is unlikely to survive the administration change.

By Parag Patel, Adam Bruce Fovent, and Deric Behar

On January 10, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a proposed interpretative rule that would extend the consumer protections of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) to certain stablecoin and other virtual currency accounts, video game accounts, and credit card rewards points accounts (the Proposed Interpretation).1 In issuing

The NPV aims to promote growth and international competitiveness by advancing open banking, re-evaluating the approach to regulating the sector, and continuing the fight against fraud.

By Brett Carr, Christian F. McDermott, and Stuart Davis

On 14 November 2024, the UK government published the National Payments Vision (NPV or Vision), which represents the government’s view on how to support the growth and competitiveness of the UK’s payments sector and outlines its key objectives. The central mission of the

Remittance service providers would need to update their disclosure statements under a narrowly tailored proposed amendment which aims to resolve issues more efficiently and save consumers time.

By Parag Patel, Barrie VanBrackle, and Deric Behar

On September 20, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule amendment to disclosure requirements under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (the Act) and Regulation E (the Act’s implementing regulation) for certain international money transfers, or remittances (the Proposal). The Proposal

The proposal would make key changes to the definition of “deposit broker” with significant ramifications for banks, fintechs, bank-fintech partnerships, and other third parties in the financial services industry.

By Arthur S. Long, Parag Patel, Barrie VanBrackle, Pia Naib, and Deric Behar

The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) recently approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Unsafe and Unsound Banking Practices: Brokered Deposits Restrictions”) (the Proposal) to amend the agency’s brokered deposit

Paycheck advance products that are deemed consumer loans under the CFPB’s new proposal would be subject to increased disclosure and regulatory protections.

By Parag Patel, Barrie VanBrackle, and Deric Behar

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently proposed an interpretive rule titled “Consumer Credit Offered to Borrowers in Advance of Expected Receipt of Compensation for Work” (the Proposal). If finalized, the Proposal would designate “earned wage access” or “earned wage advance” products (EWAs) that require a fee as

The UK’s consultation on deregulating commercial agents could have knock-on impacts on payment services and create regulatory divergence from the EU.

By Christian McDermott, Brett Carr, and Grace Erskine

On 16 May 2024, the UK government launched a consultation into the deregulation of the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 (the Commercial Agents Regulations). The Commercial Agents Regulations implemented Council Directive 86/653/EEC (the Commercial Agents Directive) and defined certain pro-agent terms of engagement between businesses and their self-employed commercial agents who are authorised to negotiate the sale or purchase of goods on their behalf.

The stated purpose of the consultation is to ensure that the Commercial Agents Regulations serve the needs of UK businesses post-Brexit, and to remove the legal complexities resulting from the interaction of the Commercial Agents Regulations with the English legal system’s rules on agency and contract law. The UK government’s current proposal is for existing contracts under the Commercial Agents Regulations to remain in force until termination or expiry, and to prevent new contracts from being subject to the Commercial Agents Regulations.

In addition to affecting relationships between UK agents and their principals, the proposals could also have knock-on effects for the payments sector, which we explore in this post.

The centralized repository would assist the CFPB and law enforcement in detecting patterns of misbehavior and recidivism adversely affecting consumers.

By Arthur S. Long, Barrie VanBrackle, and Deric Behar

On June 3, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule (Registry of Nonbank Covered Persons Subject to Certain Agency and Court Orders) (the Rule) to track judicial and regulatory enforcement orders against nonbank financial firms, and to report on such orders in a publicly available registry.

The preliminary injunction was granted pursuant to Fifth Circuit precedent that the CFPB’s independent funding structure is unconstitutional.

By Barrie VanBrackle and Deric Behar

On May 10, 2024, the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas blocked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) final rule (the Rule) amending Regulation Z to limit credit card late fees. The Rule was initially proposed in February 2023, finalized on March 5, 2024, and was set to go into effect on May 14, 2024.

The Rule aims to ensure that credit card late fees are “reasonable and proportional” to the costs that issuers incur in collecting late payments, as required by TILA. The Rule, however, faced immediate and intense criticism from market participants and trade groups representing banks and credit unions (for more information, see this Latham blog post).

The rule targets a statutory loophole that the CFPB asserts large credit card issuers exploited to exact excessive late fees from consumers.

By Barrie VanBrackle and Deric Behar

On March 5, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule (the Rule) to amend Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) to limit credit card late fees. The Rule was initially proposed in February 2023 and was intended to go into effect in October 2023 (for

The proposal would subject certain large non-bank companies offering wallet and payment services to federal regulatory oversight on par with banks and credit unions.

By Jenny Cieplak, Parag Patel, Barrie VanBrackle, and Deric Behar

On November 7, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule, Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications (the Proposal), to supervise large providers of digital wallets and payment apps. The Proposal aims to ensure that US-based non-bank financial service companies providing digital wallets and payment apps will be subject to the same federal supervisory rules as banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions that the CFPB already supervises.

According to the CFPB, fintech companies and other firms offering novel products and services in the consumer finance space have “blur[ed] the traditional lines of banking and commerce.” The Proposal therefore aims to “enable the CFPB to monitor for new risks to both consumers and the market,” and to “promote fair competition” through consistent enforcement between depository and non-depository institutions.