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Forbes
30-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump Administration Will Rewrite Rule On Access To Consumer Financial Data
Russell Vought, the acting head of the CFPB, has shifted course on the open banking rule. Instead of killing it, he wants to rewrite it.A federal judge on Tuesday granted a last minute motion by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to stay the court battle over the legality of the agency's 'open banking' rule, while it rewrites it in a way that 'aligns with the policy preferences of the new leadership.' The regulations, designed to give consumers greater control over their own financial data, were finalized last October under the Biden Administration, and scheduled to take effect on a staggered basis next year. The Biden-era rule allows customers to access and share financial information connected to their bank accounts, credit cards, payment apps and mobile wallets with authorized third parties (for example, fintechs) without a fee. After the rule was issued, The Bank Policy Institute, the Kentucky Bankers Association and Forcht Bank, immediately sued to block it in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. On May 30th, the CFPB, now run by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, a deregulation hawk, filed a motion urging that the rule be declared illegal under the Administrative Procedure Act. Its filing argued that the rule exceeded the agency's authority under Section 1033 of the 2010 Dodd Franks Act, because that section granted consumers–not third parties like fintechs–a right to their financial data. Meanwhile, the Financial Technology Association (FTA), a DC-based trade group, was granted the right to intervene in the litigation to defend the rule. But yesterday, when the CFPB was due to respond to the FTA's motion for summary judgment in support of the rule, it instead asked for a stay while it rewrites the rule. The CFPB's decision to revisit open banking is a clear shift from its May position. Notably, the banking groups the CFPB previously sided with, opposed the stay motion. Meanwhile, the FTA expressed its support in a public statement and pledged to work alongside the agency in the rulemaking process. In a court filing, it added that it reserved its right to object to any delay in compliance deadlines. Recent developments have turned up the already high heat on the issue. Earlier this month, JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank, shocked the fintech industry by sending out notices that it intends to introduce steep fees for sharing consumer data–so steep that they could make a life-or-death difference for some fintechs. Last week, lobbying groups representing fintechs, restaurants, retailers and the crypto industry President Trump has embraced (and profited from), sent a joint letter to him asking his administration to take a position in the court case affirming 'that customers, not big banks, control their financial data.' In the letter, they urged him to help safeguard Americans' 'access to the future of finance' and positioned open banking as an extension of his America-First agenda – and the key to ensuring that the U.S. remains a global financial leader. Many of America's largest banks, who view the open banking regulations as a threat to their business, are fighting hard to retain their market dominance and ward off emerging competition by fintech firms. Fintech companies worry that an industrywide shift led by banks towards tighter control over financial data, in the absence of regulatory clarity, could hurt their businesses and stifle innovation within the sector.
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US stock futures little changed ahead of Fed meeting results
U.S. stock futures are little changed ahead of results from the Federal Reserve's policy meeting in the afternoon. Almost no one predicts the Fed will lower rates, but economists predict that the decision for the first time since 1993, will not be unanimous with two Fed governors dissenting. Investors will look for clues in the Fed's policy statement and at Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference for when the Fed might be ready to lower rates. The CME FedWatch tool that measures the likelihood that the Fed will change the Federal target rate at upcoming meetings according to market traders shows a 63.4% chance for a September rate cut. October holds a 49.2% chance. Lower rates make borrowing money cheaper, which is seen giving businesses and consumers reason to spend and boost the economy and the stock market. "The question is whether they will convey a greater openness to cutting rates at their September meeting," said Bill Nelson, chief economist at the Bank Policy Institute. "For several reasons, my guess is that they won't. The FOMC statement and Chair Powell's press conference will aim to strike the same neutral tone as in June." At 6:05 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow slipped -0.02%, while broad S&P 500 futures added 0.05% and tech-heavy Nasdaq futures rose 0.11%. Ongoing trade deal talks U.S. and Chinese officials continue to hold trade talks in Stockholm, Sweden as an agreement to extend a tariff truce that expires on Aug. 12 remains elusive. Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang told reporters that both sides agreed on maintaining the truce, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that was jumping the gun. Any extension would have to be approved by President Donald Trump, he said. Meanwhile, South Korean officials met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington to try to prevent an increase in tariffs on Korean exports before an Aug. 1 deadline. Earnings Investors also will be looking at key earnings reports for direction. More so-called Magnificent Seven influential megacap technology stocks are slated to report this week. They include Facebook-parent Meta Platforms and software giant Microsoft after the market closes. Investors will want to see if artificial intelligence spending remains intact. AI spending has fueled the rally in many tech stocks this year. Other companies due to report after the close include Robinhood, Qualcomm, Arm Holdings, Lam Research, Carvana and Allstate. Before the market opens, investors will see results from Hershey's, Altria, Garmin, Kraft Heinz, Humana and Wingstop. Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@ and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US stock futures little changed ahead of Federal Reserve results
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Everyone wants to be a bank now. Banks aren't happy about it.
A lot of companies that are not in the banking business are suddenly applying for new US banking charters, from automakers General Motors (GM) and Stellantis (STLA) to cryptocurrency firms Circle (CRCL) and Ripple ( Banks, not surprisingly, aren't happy about any of this. Their fear is that many of these new entrants are seeking novel, lighter-touch charters that would, in practice, let them offer banking services while bypassing some of the regulatory obligations that traditionally come with that business. "Banks don't oppose competition," Paige Pidano Paridon, co-head of regulatory affairs with the lobbying group Bank Policy Institute, said in an emailed statement. "They oppose a regulatory double standard that imposes more lenient regulations on a small group of market participants engaged in the same activities as a bank." The battle over who gets to be a bank is once again heating up in Washington, D.C., as the Trump administration reexamines a slew of regulations governing the financial services industry. The process is expected to result in looser rules for banks, but it could also mean a lower bar for newer entrants that want access to the regulated banking ecosystem. This past week, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation made it clear that it wants to make adjustments for these newer entrants as it released a request for information on its process for approving "industrial loan companies." The FDIC also rescinded a Biden administration proposal that would have heightened scrutiny of companies seeking such state-level charters. Automakers General Motors, Stellantis, and Nissan have all recently applied for ILCs, which would grant them the same FDIC deposit insurance coverage that traditional banks offer while allowing them to make loans and collect deposits. Their parent companies wouldn't have Federal Reserve supervision as traditional banks do. Learn more about high-yield savings accounts, money market accounts, and CD accounts. Banks and nonbanks have clashed before. Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) subsidiaries filed for deposit insurance coverage roughly two decades ago, which generated fierce pushback from mainstream lenders. In a March letter to the FDIC, banking lobbyists at the ICBA argued that "ownership of ILCs by automakers has a history of failure." The letter described the 2008 collapse and eventual federal bailout of financier GMAC, which is now known as Ally (ALLY). "ICBA has opposed the approval of all ILCs with commercial parent companies because they are risky, lack appropriate levels of prudential regulation and supervision at the holding company level, and harm consumers by creating companies with undue concentrations," ICBA wrote. Tim Spence, CEO of Cincinnati regional bank Fifth Third (FITB), told Yahoo Finance he believes these novel charters "have a role to play, provided that they stay limited purpose as opposed to being used to basically conduct the activities of a bank without actually having to comply with the same set of rules." 'Dangerous concentration' Many crypto and fintech companies are following a different regulatory path to the banking system than the automakers: They are instead seeking national trust banking charters with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). So far this year, at least 18 different businesses have applied for this kind of charter, which wouldn't allow a company to make loans or take deposits but would allow them to offer certain bank custody services. That is a 70% jump compared with the number of companies that applied over the same period during the Biden administration in 2024, according to the OCC. The list includes Circle, which issues the world's second-largest stablecoin and caught Wall Street's attention last month with its chart-topping IPO. Others include major crypto firm Ripple, British fintech Wise, and Fidelity Digital Assets, the crypto subsidiary of Fidelity Investments. Erebor, a digital bank startup backed by Silicon Valley billionaires Palmer Luckey and Peter Thiel, has also applied for a full-service national bank charter. "Applications of this sort pose unique challenges," the ICBA wrote in a July 10 letter to OCC Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood. Along with violating the "separation of banking and commerce," creating conflicts of interest and "dangerous concentration," ICBA argued in the letter that granting these charters to crypto firms "unwisely extends the federal safety net to commercial interests." ICBA's letter to the OCC cited a US Government Accountability Office report on the resolution of two sizable bank failures of crypto-friendly regional banks — Silvergate and Signature — in the spring of 2023. The report identified the banks' exposure to the crypto world as a driver of their ultimate failure. For some of the new crypto applicants that deal with dollar-pegged stablecoins, getting a national trust bank charter fulfills a registration requirement within new legislation passed this week, known as the GENIUS Act, which sets rules for those digital assets. Read more: Can you buy crypto with a credit card? See the pros and cons. Because the legislation will open stablecoins to existing banks, there is reason to believe these firms also need the credibility of a charter if they want to compete for clients against mainstream banks. "Even in a world where we have this full-fledged OCC charter, we would still totally partner with banks," Circle head of strategy Dante Disparate said. Disparate said having a national trust bank charter would also make it easier for it to "harmonize" its various regulatory licenses in other countries. "It also allows for the contemplation of other potential activities in the future, those will be subject to the licensing itself with the OCC," Disparate added. Big banks are also preparing for what they expect to be wider spread use of stablecoins. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, a longtime skeptic of cryptocurrencies, said this past week that his bank needs to embrace stablecoins as a way to keep pace with payment rivals. Last month, JPMorgan announced plans to launch a so-called deposit token called JPMD that is somewhat like a stablecoin but available only to JPMorgan's institutional clients. "We're going to be involved in both JPMorgan deposit coin and stablecoins to understand it, to be good at it," Dimon said. He also made it clear he hasn't dropped his skepticism entirely: "I think they're real, but I don't know why you'd want to [use a] stablecoin as opposed to just payment." David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance. His email is at Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Everyone wants to be a bank now. Banks aren't happy about it.
A lot of companies that are not in the banking business are suddenly applying for new US banking charters, from automakers General Motors (GM) and Stellantis (STLA) to cryptocurrency firms Circle (CRCL) and Ripple ( Banks, not surprisingly, aren't happy about any of this. Their fear is that many of these new entrants are seeking novel, lighter-touch charters that would, in practice, let them offer banking services while bypassing some of the regulatory obligations that traditionally come with that business. "Banks don't oppose competition," Paige Pidano Paridon, co-head of regulatory affairs with the lobbying group Bank Policy Institute, said in an emailed statement. "They oppose a regulatory double standard that imposes more lenient regulations on a small group of market participants engaged in the same activities as a bank." The battle over who gets to be a bank is once again heating up in Washington, D.C., as the Trump administration reexamines a slew of regulations governing the financial services industry. The process is expected to result in looser rules for banks, but it could also mean a lower bar for newer entrants that want access to the regulated banking ecosystem. This past week, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation made it clear that it wants to make adjustments for these newer entrants as it released a request for information on its process for approving "industrial loan companies." The FDIC also rescinded a Biden administration proposal that would have heightened scrutiny of companies seeking such state-level charters. Automakers General Motors, Stellantis, and Nissan have all recently applied for ILCs, which would grant them the same FDIC deposit insurance coverage that traditional banks offer while allowing them to make loans and collect deposits. Their parent companies wouldn't have Federal Reserve supervision as traditional banks do. Learn more about high-yield savings accounts, money market accounts, and CD accounts. Banks and nonbanks have clashed before. Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) subsidiaries filed for deposit insurance coverage roughly two decades ago, which generated fierce pushback from mainstream lenders. In a March letter to the FDIC, banking lobbyists at the ICBA argued that "ownership of ILCs by automakers has a history of failure." The letter described the 2008 collapse and eventual federal bailout of financier GMAC, which is now known as Ally (ALLY). "ICBA has opposed the approval of all ILCs with commercial parent companies because they are risky, lack appropriate levels of prudential regulation and supervision at the holding company level, and harm consumers by creating companies with undue concentrations," ICBA wrote. Tim Spence, CEO of Cincinnati regional bank Fifth Third (FITB), told Yahoo Finance he believes these novel charters "have a role to play, provided that they stay limited purpose as opposed to being used to basically conduct the activities of a bank without actually having to comply with the same set of rules." 'Dangerous concentration' Many crypto and fintech companies are following a different regulatory path to the banking system than the automakers: They are instead seeking national trust banking charters with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). So far this year, at least 18 different businesses have applied for this kind of charter, which wouldn't allow a company to make loans or take deposits but would allow them to offer certain bank custody services. That is a 70% jump compared with the number of companies that applied over the same period during the Biden administration in 2024, according to the OCC. The list includes Circle, which issues the world's second-largest stablecoin and caught Wall Street's attention last month with its chart-topping IPO. Others include major crypto firm Ripple, British fintech Wise, and Fidelity Digital Assets, the crypto subsidiary of Fidelity Investments. Erebor, a digital bank startup backed by Silicon Valley billionaires Palmer Luckey and Peter Thiel, has also applied for a full-service national bank charter. "Applications of this sort pose unique challenges," the ICBA wrote in a July 10 letter to OCC Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood. Along with violating the "separation of banking and commerce," creating conflicts of interest and "dangerous concentration," ICBA argued in the letter that granting these charters to crypto firms "unwisely extends the federal safety net to commercial interests." ICBA's letter to the OCC cited a US Government Accountability Office report on the resolution of two sizable bank failures of crypto-friendly regional banks — Silvergate and Signature — in the spring of 2023. The report identified the banks' exposure to the crypto world as a driver of their ultimate failure. For some of the new crypto applicants that deal with dollar-pegged stablecoins, getting a national trust bank charter fulfills a registration requirement within new legislation passed this week, known as the GENIUS Act, which sets rules for those digital assets. Read more: Can you buy crypto with a credit card? See the pros and cons. Because the legislation will open stablecoins to existing banks, there is reason to believe these firms also need the credibility of a charter if they want to compete for clients against mainstream banks. "Even in a world where we have this full-fledged OCC charter, we would still totally partner with banks," Circle head of strategy Dante Disparate said. Disparate said having a national trust bank charter would also make it easier for it to "harmonize" its various regulatory licenses in other countries. "It also allows for the contemplation of other potential activities in the future, those will be subject to the licensing itself with the OCC," Disparate added. Big banks are also preparing for what they expect to be wider spread use of stablecoins. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, a longtime skeptic of cryptocurrencies, said this past week that his bank needs to embrace stablecoins as a way to keep pace with payment rivals. Last month, JPMorgan announced plans to launch a so-called deposit token called JPMD that is somewhat like a stablecoin but available only to JPMorgan's institutional clients. "We're going to be involved in both JPMorgan deposit coin and stablecoins to understand it, to be good at it," Dimon said. He also made it clear he hasn't dropped his skepticism entirely: "I think they're real, but I don't know why you'd want to [use a] stablecoin as opposed to just payment." David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance. His email is at Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices
Reuters
17-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Breakingviews - Jamie Dimon overstretches his fintech flex
NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Jamie Dimon is fighting his fears. Four years ago, JPMorgan's (JPM.N), opens new tab boss warned that mega-banks like the one he runs should be 'scared shitless, opens new tab' about technologically savvy financial challengers. Now he has begun pushing back in ways that are spooking those same fast-growing rivals. Such aggressive tactics, which include recently initiated plans to charge data aggregators for access to basic customer data, attest to his anxiety and betray a heightened risk tolerance for coping with it. The biggest concern is that new fintech ventures start with clean software slates, giving them an edge over incumbents saddled with patchwork systems precariously glued together over decades. JPMorgan has tried to overcome this handicap with money. Its 2025 technology budget is $18 billion, more than the median amount of assets, opens new tab that U.S. banks hold, according to data connector MX Technologies. Those investments have bolstered JPMorgan's digital capabilities, but its ever-cautious CEO clearly sees more territory to defend. The bank recently told middlemen such as Yodlee, Finicity and Plaid that it will start collecting fees, opens new tab for information they access on behalf of consumers to sync with other banks and lending, investing and payment apps like Rocket, Robinhood and Venmo. The Bank Policy Institute, which lobbies on behalf of JPMorgan and its peers, also has legally challenged open-banking rules, opens new tab that would, among other things, prohibit such charges. It's understandable that the bank wants to protect its competitive moat and recoup some costs related to fraud protection and 2 billion monthly account access requests. JPMorgan also generated $34 billion of interchange fees, opens new tab from processing credit and debit card payments last year, which resulted in $5.5 billion of income after rewards for customers and outlays to partners. If users switch to making payments using electronic transfers, which are typically free, this revenue will shrink. More significantly, the easier and cheaper it is to connect outside vendors, the less likely customers will treat JPMorgan as a one-stop shop. The amounts JPMorgan intends to charge have not been disclosed, but they will probably be prohibitive for some fintech firms, especially if other big U.S. banks follow suit. The risk for Dimon is that consumers resent incurring costs for their own data and find it harder to use various apps, while shining a brighter spotlight on JPMorgan's clout. Although some analysts downplay, opens new tab the extra expense for aggregators, Andreessen Horowitz Co-Founder Ben Horowitz, whose venture capital firm backs cryptocurrency trading and other financial startups, called it, opens new tab 'horrible anticompetitive behavior.' Dimon's fintech flex looks painfully overstretched. Follow Jeffrey Goldfarb on X, opens new tab and Linkedin, opens new tab.
