On January 10, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) issued a notice of proposed interpretive rule (Proposed Rule). The deadline for comments is March 31, 2025. The Proposed Rule would apply the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA)—which protects consumers against errors and fraud—to new types of digital payment mechanisms, including stablecoins and other digital currencies.
In a significant development since our last post, Fiserv’s application for a merchant acquirer limited purpose bank (MALPB) charter has been approved by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. This approval marks a pivotal moment for fintech and nonbank entities seeking direct access to card networks.
This is the first of three articles focused on a key question: as bank-fintech partnerships continue to play a vital role in driving financial services, how does the industry make this system safer and better?
Fintechs and their partner banks are on edge. Regulators are concerned. But as counselors to a wide range of banks and nonbanks, we are confident that the bank-fintech partnership model is not broken. We have seen these partnerships work well — not just for clients, but for consumers and other end-users — with rigorous, risk-based controls that satisfy both the regulators and the public.
Yesterday, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the agencies) issued a joint statement highlighting potential risks associated with banks’ arrangements with third parties to deliver bank deposit products and services. While the information is not new, it clearly memorializes the issues that have been at the forefront of recent enforcement actions involving banks operating under a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) model.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has recently issued a final rule amending its regulations governing the use of official FDIC signs and insured depository institutions’ (IDIs) advertising statements. The new rule took effect on April 1, 2024, with an extended compliance date of January 1, 2025. The extended compliance date is intended to provide sufficient time for financial institutions to put in place processes, systems, and technological updates to implement the new regulatory requirements.
In the rapidly changing world of financial services, payment processors, money transmitters, and other fintech businesses are grappling with an increase in regulatory scrutiny and consumer expectations. Troutman Pepper’s dedicated Payments team is actively engaged in addressing these challenges, providing legal support to clients throughout their business cycles.
On January 12, Fiserv announced that it filed an application with the state of Georgia for a merchant acquirer limited purpose bank (MALPB) charter. This application is a seismic development and positive sign for those in the United States pushing for more direct merchant acquirer access to the payment card networks.
As discussed here, on August 1, the two major national credit union trade associations — the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) and the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) — announced plans to merge and create a new organization called America’s Credit Unions. Today, CUNA announced that the organizations’ members voted overwhelmingly (94% of CUNA members and 86% of NAFCU members) in favor of the merger. America’s Credit Unions will be legally formed on January 1, 2024.
On October 17, 52 state and territorial attorneys general, in addition to state money transmission regulators, entered into settlements amounting to more than $20 million with ACI Worldwide (ACI), to resolve claims involving a money transmission error that led to the unauthorized withdrawal of $2.3 billion from Nationstar Mortgage (also known as Mr. Cooper) customers.
On October 16, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) published a notice of an Open Board Meeting to take place on October 25. The only matter under consideration at that meeting will be the Fed’s proposed revisions to the debit interchange fee cap. Predictions are that the Fed is considering lowering that cap.