Regulation and policy

Federal and state rules, enforcement actions, court rulings and legislation that touch consumer credit and payments.

60 items in 15 issues, Oct 24, 2026 to Nov 9, 2026, newest first. Each item links to the issue it ran in, where its sources are listed.

November 2026

Mon, Nov 9 · Banks & charters
Rate watch. Rate watch tracks what savers earn and how much money sits in each bucket, the other side of the card rates above.Savings and other liquid deposits: Balances were $10.44 trillion in September, down from $10.87 trillion a year earlier. The FDIC's national average savings rate was 0.38% in October, down from 0.40% a year earlier. Online banks pay far more. EverBank pays 4.20% APY on new Performance Savings accounts, and Openbank, Santander's digital bank, pays 4.00% (4.35% for new customers' first six months), both as posted Nov. 9. SoFi pays 3.30% with direct deposit (as of Oct. 20), and Ally pays 3.20% (as of Nov. 5).CDs (small time deposits): Balances were $1.51 trillion in September, down from $1.52 trillion a year earlier. The national average 12-month CD rate was 1.76% in October, up from 1.68% a year earlier; Ally's High Yield CD pays 2.90% APY (as of Nov. 5).Money market funds: Assets were $8.02 trillion in the week ended Nov. 4, up from $7.53 trillion a year earlier, including $3.12 trillion in retail funds. These uninsured funds pay more than most bank savings accounts. The Crane 100 index of the largest funds had a seven-day yield of 3.75% as of Nov. 8, compared with 3.58% at the end of 2025.Biggest low-rate deposit bases: JPMorgan Chase's consumer bank held $1.10 trillion of average deposits in the third quarter, up 4% from a year earlier, and earned a 2.78% margin on them. JPMorgan does not disclose a consumer rate paid. Bank of America's Consumer Banking unit held $948.6 billion of average deposits, little changed from $947.4 billion a year earlier. It paid an average rate of 0.51% on them, compared with 1.49% across all of BofA's deposits.The shift: Over the past year, savings and other liquid deposits fell about $422 billion while money market fund assets grew about $481 billion. Deposit balances fell about $822 billion in November and December 2025 alone and have since recovered about $338 billion.Deposit balances are Federal Reserve H.6 data, seasonally adjusted; rates are each bank's posted rate or FDIC monthly averages.
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Mon, Nov 9 · Policy & enforcement
CoinFlip. California's Business and Consumer Services Agency demanded that crypto ATM operator CoinFlip pay $4.8 million in restitution to scam victims. The agency said the company failed to detect, prevent, report and mitigate suspicious activity over five years. The agency, led by former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, also said consumers can no longer rely on federal regulators for protection.
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Mon, Nov 9 · Policy & enforcement
Fair-lending suit. The National Urban League and the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations sued the CFPB on Oct. 29 in federal court in Massachusetts. They seek to overturn the bureau's April rewrite of Regulation B, which implements the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The rule ends disparate-impact liability, narrows discouragement protections and limits special-purpose credit programs at for-profit lenders. The plaintiffs say the bureau changed nothing after about 64,500 comments, 90% of them opposed, and that former acting Director Russell Vought lacked authority to issue the rule. A May suit by the National Fair Housing Alliance and others in Washington, D.C., challenges the same rule.
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Mon, Nov 9 · Policy & enforcement
CFPB pullback. By June 30, 2026, the CFPB had closed 1,327 of the 1,552 supervisory actions open on July 1, 2025, or about 86%, its semiannual report to Congress shows. It also closed 66 of 80 open exams and about 40% of pending investigations, and cut scheduled exams by about half. In the period, it cited no fair-lending violations and made no fair-lending referrals to the Justice Department.
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Mon, Nov 9 · People moves
PNC CFO. PNC named Alex Overstrom, its retail banking chief since 2022, chief financial officer effective March 1, 2027. Rob Reilly, CFO for 13 years, becomes executive vice chair and senior adviser to CEO Bill Demchak, and PNC said it will name a new retail head soon.
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Mon, Nov 9 · Worth a read
State AGs step up. American Banker's Kate Berry reports that Democrats flipped five attorney general seats for a 29-22 majority next year. Berry writes that those offices are likely to focus on pocketbook issues such as hidden fees and algorithmic pricing, with AI also on their list. It is worth reading as a map of where state enforcement is likely to land as the CFPB pulls back.
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Sun, Nov 8 · The week ahead
Fed speakers. Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks on community banking Monday at 8:40 a.m. ET and on supervision and regulation Friday at 10:50 a.m. ET. Gov. Christopher Waller gives an economic outlook in London on Tuesday, and Gov. Michael Barr speaks on AI and inequality Thursday at 10:00 a.m. ET.
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Sun, Nov 8 · The long read: The charter rush, as Democrats take the Senate
The rush. Fintech and digital-asset firms have filed about 31 de novo national bank applications in 2026, Morrison Foerster's Alexandra Barrage told Law.com, a pace not seen in nearly two decades. The OCC said in August that it had received 40 de novo applications over the previous 18 months, against fewer than four a year from 2011 to 2014. It also said it often decides within 120 days of a complete filing.
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Sun, Nov 8 · The long read: The charter rush, as Democrats take the Senate
Lenders in line. Consumer lenders have joined the line. Upstart won conditional OCC approval for Upstart Bank in July. Mission Lane won conditional approval for a credit-card-only bank, which Klaros's Michele Alt called the first new OCC card bank in more than 20 years.
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Sun, Nov 8 · The long read: The charter rush, as Democrats take the Senate
The pay-later race. All three large U.S. pay-later lenders now have bank applications pending. Affirm filed in January for Affirm Bank, a Nevada industrial loan company, and Klarna applied in July for a Utah bank charter. Sezzle applied to the OCC on Oct. 22 for a national bank, a review that CEO Charlie Youakim expects to take 12 to 18 months.
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Sun, Nov 8 · The long read: The charter rush, as Democrats take the Senate
Buying a bank stalls. The other route, buying an existing bank, has run into resistance. Twenty state and District attorneys general asked regulators in July to deny charters and deals to fintechs with a "history of predatory lending or risky practices." Enova dropped its Grasshopper bid in September, saying the process "is susceptible to political pressure," and OppFi withdrew its BNC applications on Nov. 3 while keeping the merger agreement in effect.
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Sun, Nov 8 · The long read: The charter rush, as Democrats take the Senate
Warren's gavel. Now that Democrats have taken the Senate, Warren is in line to control the Banking Committee's hearings and witnesses, issue subpoenas and slow nominees, American Banker reported. She has already pressed the OCC: in May she asked Comptroller Jonathan Gould for the applications and legal analyses behind at least nine crypto trust charters.
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Sun, Nov 8 · The long read: The charter rush, as Democrats take the Senate
What to watch. The OCC's approvals do not need the Senate, but deposit insurance from the FDIC is the gating step for de novo banks and ILCs, and FDIC board seats need confirmation. The decisions to watch are the FDIC's rulings on Affirm's ILC and Klarna's Utah bank, Sezzle's OCC review and whether OppFi refiles or ends its BNC agreement.
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Sun, Nov 8 · Company spotlight: Affirm, part 2
Fall. Amazon.co.uk added Affirm in September, and in October Sam's Club made Affirm its exclusive pay-later provider, online first and in clubs early in 2027. New York's financial regulator proposed BNPL licensing rules in July, including an $8 cap on penalty fees.
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Sun, Nov 8 · Worth a read
Debit fees in court. American Banker's Kyle Campbell argues that the Eighth Circuit's Corner Post ruling makes a lower debit fee cap close to certain, but not soon. The court found that the Fed's 2011 cap counted costs the Durbin Amendment doesn't allow. He maps the next steps, from a pending Sixth Circuit appeal of a ruling that went the Fed's way to a possible Supreme Court review.
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Sat, Nov 7 · Opening balance
Carried over. Sen. Elizabeth Warren had asked the Justice Department to open a criminal probe of Bank of America over its $1.21 billion anti-money laundering penalty, with a reply requested by Nov. 12. The Fed could seek a rehearing within 45 days after the Eighth Circuit vacated its 21-cent debit interchange cap on Oct. 26, and the FTC and eight states had sued Toast over hidden fees.
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Sat, Nov 7 · Charges
Rate caps return. Bipartisan bills in both chambers would cap card rates at 10%, against average APRs above 20%, and Democratic gains put Warren in line to lead the Senate Banking Committee and Rep. Maxine Waters the House Financial Services Committee. Synchrony lost 2.1% for the week and Capital One 1.5%.
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Sat, Nov 7 · Credits
Swipe-fee bill stalls. The Credit Card Competition Act loses both of its lead Senate sponsors next year, with Sen. Roger Marshall defeated and Sen. Dick Durbin retiring. Backers may try to attach it to lame-duck spending bills, but the odds look long.
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Sat, Nov 7 · Interest earned
Charters, both ways. Sezzle applied in October for a national bank charter as Sezzle Bank, N.A., while OppFi withdrew its regulatory applications to buy Arizona's BNC National Bank, citing a "lack of clearly articulated standards," though its merger agreement remains in effect.
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Sat, Nov 7 · Closing balance
In Washington. Warren wants the Justice Department's reply on Bank of America by Nov. 12, and CFPB nominee Brian Johnson still needs a Senate floor vote before Congress adjourns. Wells Fargo's Fernando Rivas expects a dealmaking rush through 2027 as companies try to use what they see as a regulatory window.
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Fri, Nov 6 · The big story: October jobs beat forecasts
After the rout. Nasdaq futures rose about 1.3% after the release while Dow futures fell about 1%, as strong hiring and higher hike odds pulled in different directions. The report lands a day after the S&P 500 fell 4.4% and the Nasdaq 5.5%, its worst day in 18 months and a drop into correction territory, as chip stocks collapsed on fears a Democratic Congress will slow data-center spending.
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Fri, Nov 6 · Banks & charters
OppFi. Subprime lender OppFi withdrew its applications with the OCC, Fed and FDIC to buy Arizona's BNC National Bank for $130 million, blaming a "lack of clearly articulated standards." Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen, who had called its model "predatory," welcomed the move, the second such retreat after Enova dropped its Grasshopper Bank bid.
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Fri, Nov 6 · Banks & charters
Charter path. High-rate lenders seeking bank charters face a tougher road with Warren in line to chair Senate Banking. OppFi said its merger agreement remains in effect and it still wants a charter, but 20 attorneys general had argued the deals were attempts to sidestep state usury caps.
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Fri, Nov 6 · Banks & charters
Deal window. Fernando Rivas, Wells Fargo's head of corporate and investment banking, said a "now or never" attitude will drive bank M&A through 2027, since a tougher FTC and DOJ "could very easily come back in [20]28." A UBS analyst wrote that the midterms are likely to "catalyze M&A."
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Fri, Nov 6 · Policy & enforcement
Swipe-fee bill. The Credit Card Competition Act loses both lead Senate sponsors next year, with Sen. Roger Marshall defeated and Sen. Dick Durbin retiring, and Durbin has handed the effort to Sen. Peter Welch. Backers may try to attach it to lame-duck spending bills, but a convenience-store lobbyist gave it only "as good a shot as many other things to move."
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Fri, Nov 6 · Policy & enforcement
Rate caps instead. A Democratic Congress may focus on card interest rates instead, Payments Dive suggests, which could favor the Sanders-Hawley bill to cap rates at 10%.
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Thu, Nov 5 · The big story: Block settles with the DOJ
A long tail. Cash App's compliance lapses have now cost Block more than $1 billion: the DOJ deal follows a $255 million settlement with the CFPB and 48 states in January 2025 and a $45 million deal with 46 states in July. Executives did not discuss the settlement on the earnings call.
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Thu, Nov 5 · Policy & enforcement
Midterm fallout. Democratic control of Congress "hurts the direction of travel in the bank space," TD Securities analyst Scott Siefers said, as hopes for bank-friendly bills fade. CFPB nominee Brian Johnson cleared committee in September but still needs a floor vote before Congress adjourns, and UBS's Jonathan Pringle noted the Senate can now block Fed nominees.
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Thu, Nov 5 · Policy & enforcement
Regulators stay put. Supervision may change less than the politics suggest: Citi analyst Benjamin Gerlinger expects regulator leadership to stay stable. Several Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee lost their seats.
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Thu, Nov 5 · Policy & enforcement
OCC on AI. The OCC issued a supervisory framework for bank use of super intelligence, saying it is not a separate risk category and does not need its own risk appetite. Expectations stay technology-neutral, so banks can fold AI underwriting and fraud tools into existing model risk programs.
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Thu, Nov 5 · Policy & enforcement
Processor fees. Riverside Payments will pay $600,000 to settle FTC and Washington state charges that it lured merchants with promised 40% to 60% savings and then charged a $695 early termination fee. A $32.1 million judgment is suspended, and the case is the latest in a run of fee cases against processors.
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Thu, Nov 5 · Worth a read
Banks after the sweep. Forbes' Mayra Rodriguez Valladares lays out how Democrats could press big banks on lending to nonbank financial firms, about $1 trillion or 6% of assets, and revive rate caps, while noting Congress "cannot independently rewrite Federal Reserve capital regulations through oversight hearings."
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Wed, Nov 4 · The big story: Democrats take Congress
The result. Democrats swept both chambers: The AP called the Senate for Democrats late Tuesday and the House early Wednesday. Democrats had won 53 Senate contests to Republicans' 41 when Maine was called, with Sherrod Brown taking Ohio, Troy Jackson unseating Sen. Susan Collins in Maine and a Democrat winning a Kansas Senate seat for the first time in nearly a century.
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Wed, Nov 4 · The big story: Democrats take Congress
Oversight, not new law. Expect aggressive oversight rather than sweeping legislation: Republicans keep the White House for two more years, Democrats lack the veto-proof and filibuster-proof votes for major bills, and American Banker expects bold legislation to stall. That means a return of bank CEO hearings, with any narrow wins on credit cards or small-bank relief riding on must-pass budget or defense bills.
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Wed, Nov 4 · The big story: Democrats take Congress
New chairs. Warren is expected to take the Senate Banking gavel from Sen. Tim Scott, and Waters is likely to chair House Financial Services again. Chairs set hearings, pick most witnesses, issue subpoenas and can block nominees.
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Wed, Nov 4 · The big story: Democrats take Congress
CFPB in the spotlight. The CFPB moves to the center of the oversight fight: Democrats can call agency heads, especially the CFPB's, to testify and push for bipartisan picks on boards such as the FDIC's. Waters told acting CFPB Director Russell Vought in July, "we're not done with you," after her motion to subpoena his records failed; as chair, she could issue subpoenas herself.
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Wed, Nov 4 · The big story: Democrats take Congress
Rate caps. A 10% card rate cap is back in play: bipartisan bills in both chambers would cap rates at 10%, average card APRs sit above 20%, nearly double a decade ago, and a May Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found 72% support for a one-year cap. The White House has backed away from the idea and JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon calls it an "economic disaster," but American Banker lists credit cards among the few areas where a narrow deal could ride on a must-pass bill.
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Wed, Nov 4 · The big story: Democrats take Congress
The Fed. A Democratic Senate makes it harder for President Trump to place allies at the Fed, and Warren plans to press Chair Kevin Warsh, whose policymakers have been raising rates to fight inflation. Reuters adds that Democratic control could complicate Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman's plan to consolidate bank supervision and the GENIUS Act stablecoin rules.
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Wed, Nov 4 · Earnings
Toast. Toast raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook to $840 million to $850 million, days after the FTC and eight states sued it over fees. Payment volume rose 20% to $61.8 billion and net income rose to $169 million.
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Wed, Nov 4 · Worth a read
Wise and AML. Jason Mikula's Fintech Business Weekly argues growth-first fintechs push compliance costs onto customers, drawing on Wise restricting his and other EU businesses' accounts without notice, which he ties to anti-money laundering remediation. It also covers the Eighth Circuit ruling against the Fed's debit fee cap.
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Wed, Nov 4 · Worth a read
Fed guardrails. Reuters' Howard Schneider walks through how a Democratic Senate changes the fight over the Fed's independence, from confirmations to the effort to remove Governor Lisa Cook.
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Tue, Nov 3 · Banks & charters
Old Glory. The FDIC amended its directive against Elmore City, Okla.-based Old Glory Bank after deeming it "adequately capitalized" in late October, up from "significantly undercapitalized" in August. A planned merger with a SPAC, meant to help it meet a 14% Tier 1 leverage ratio, fell apart this summer; limits on brokered deposits, capital distributions and material transactions remain until it stays adequately capitalized for four straight quarters.
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Tue, Nov 3 · Banks & charters
Bank failure. The FDIC inspector general found that costly growth in its home-lending unit sank Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank, a single-branch Philadelphia bank with $66.8M in assets that failed in August. The failure cost the Deposit Insurance Fund an estimated $5.4M.
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Mon, Nov 2 · Policy & enforcement
BofA AML. Sen. Warren asked Attorney General Blanche last Thursday to open a criminal probe of Bank of America and its executives, calling the $1.21B FinCEN, OCC and OFAC penalty "a slap on the wrist." The bank admitted willfully failing to report over $5B in suspicious activity from 2019 to 2023; she wants an answer by Nov 12.
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Mon, Nov 2 · Policy & enforcement
Debit cap. The Eighth Circuit vacated the Fed's 21-cent debit interchange cap on Oct 26; the Fed has 45 days to seek a rehearing by the full court or can petition the Supreme Court. A parallel case is pending in the Sixth Circuit, and the ruling conflicts with a 2014 D.C. Circuit decision.
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Mon, Nov 2 · Policy & enforcement
Toast suit. The FTC and eight states sued Toast over hidden fees, unauthorized charges and hard-to-cancel subscriptions averaging about $900 a month. Toast disputes the claims and reports earnings Tuesday.
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Mon, Nov 2 · Banks & charters
Charter rush. Galaxy Digital applied last Thursday for an OCC national trust bank charter, days after Ripple's charter won final approval. American Banker's tracker, updated Friday, lists near-prime card issuer Mission Lane (conditionally approved in September) and installment lender Avant (applied in September).
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Mon, Nov 2 · Worth a read
EWA tipping. Jason Mikula (Fintech Business Weekly, Oct 25) on EarnIn's suit claiming Maryland's ban on earned-wage-access tips violates free speech, a test of how far states can go in regulating tip-based pricing.
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Sun, Nov 1 · Also this week
Amex risk chief. Amex named Jodi Richard, U.S. Bank's chief risk officer since 2018, as chief risk officer and head of global risk and compliance, effective Jan 25, 2027, reporting to CEO Stephen Squeri. It follows a $350M civil penalty and Fed and OCC actions this month over anti-money-laundering failures; current CRO Doug Tabish moves to run enterprise shared services.
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October 2026

Fri, Oct 30 · Policy & enforcement
Debit fee cap struck down. On Oct 26 the Eighth Circuit unanimously upheld a lower-court ruling that invalidated Regulation II, the Fed's debit interchange cap (Corner Post v. Fed). It found the Fed counted fixed costs that the Durbin Amendment excludes. The 21-cent cap stays until the court issues its mandate, and the Fed must write a new formula. A Sixth Circuit case heard Oct 22 could split the circuits.
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Wed, Oct 28 · Banks & charters
Ripple trust bank. The OCC granted final approval on Oct 26 for Ripple National Trust Bank, a national trust bank in New York. It will manage the reserves backing Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin and offer digital-asset custody. Ripple got preliminary approval in Dec 2025 alongside Circle, BitGo, Paxos and Fidelity Digital Assets, so more final decisions may follow.
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Tue, Oct 27 · Banks & charters
Bank M&A. HomeTrust Bancshares agreed on Oct 26 to acquire Virginia's Blue Ridge Bankshares for about $448M. That adds to a busy October for community-bank deals, with regulators speeding up merger reviews.
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Tue, Oct 27 · Policy & enforcement
New Jersey bill. Assemblyman Onyema introduced A5664 (Oct 26). It would require a state license for BNPL lenders, cap fees and interest rates, and require clearer disclosures, responsible-lending standards and dispute procedures. It's another state moving toward New York-style BNPL regulation, a day after our deep dive on the EU's CCD2.
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Mon, Oct 26 · The big story: EU credit rules for Klarna & PayPal (CCD2)
Pay in 30 days: the grey zone. German consumer guides say fee-free invoice purchases paid within 50 days stay exempt, while legal analyses say the exemption covers only a merchant's own credit. How regulators treat Klarna and PayPal 'pay in 30 days' invoices is the key open question for volumes. Watch for BaFin guidance.
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Mon, Oct 26 · The big story: EU credit rules for Klarna & PayPal (CCD2)
Patchy rollout. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria and Germany go live Nov 20, and Belgium's act passed in July. The Netherlands bill is still in parliament with no date. In January the Commission put 23 of 27 member states on notice for late transposition, so on day one providers will run different rulebooks by country. Swedish penalties reach SEK 10M or 10% of turnover.
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Mon, Oct 26 · Banks & charters
Charter & merger pipeline. Approvals are speeding up. Context: Sep 2026: the OCC conditionally approved charters for Mission Lane (credit-card bank) and Revolut. Avant and Block applied. The FDIC proposed faster merger reviews; it says average review time is down to 64 days in 2026 from 107.
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Sun, Oct 25 · BNPL & lending
Sezzle (Oct 22). Sezzle applied to the OCC for a national trust bank charter to add checking, savings and broader banking for "people who prefer BNPL." It dropped its earlier Utah ILC plan, citing new state BNPL rules (NY, IL, OR) and pushback on ILCs. The review is expected to take 12-18 months. TD Cowen called it "a smart move."
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Sun, Oct 25 · Earnings
American Express. Q3 EPS was $4.68 (vs $4.47 est. and $4.14 a year ago) on revenue of $20.06B. FY26 EPS guidance is now $17.60-17.90. Amex plans to cut ~5% of its workforce (~3,900 roles, $336M charge) to "reduce layers." Separately, the Fed and OCC fined it $350M over AML failures, with no change to guidance (American Banker, Oct 23).
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Sun, Oct 25 · Banks & charters
Charter wave. Block, Ramp, Avant and Modern Treasury have sought OCC charters in recent months, and Ramp applied the week before Sezzle. Context: Affirm applied for a Nevada ILC earlier in 2026, PayPal sought a Utah ILC in Dec 2025, and Upgrade filed for a Nevada ILC on Oct 12, 2026, naming ex-OCC and SoFi executive Virginia Varela as bank CEO.
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Sat, Oct 24 · Policy & enforcement
Pending bills. S.3623, the Credit Card Competition Act of 2026, and S.381, a proposed 10% APR cap, remain pending in the Senate.
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