To keep you informed of recent activities, below are several of the most significant federal events that have influenced the Consumer Financial Services industry over the past week.
Federal Activities:
On March 13, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it is sending warning letters to 97 auto dealership groups across the country, signaling a renewed focus on deceptive pricing practices in the retail auto sector. The letters stress that advertised prices must reflect the total price consumers will be required to pay, including all mandatory, dealer-imposed fees other than government charges like taxes. The agency identifies specific practices it considers deceptive, including advertising a price that omits required dealer fees; advertising prices that incorporate rebates or discounts not generally available to all consumers; advertising prices that do not clearly account for required down payments; conditioning advertised prices on the use of dealer financing; requiring consumers to purchase additional products or services that are not included in the advertised price; and advertising vehicles that are unavailable or nonexistent. The letters emphasize that these practices can violate § 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and they expressly note current cases against multiple auto groups involving alleged misrepresentations about price, availability, and add-on products. The FTC is using the letters as both a warning and a compliance nudge, coupled with an explicit statement that it will continue to monitor the marketplace and “take additional action as warranted.” For more information, click here.
On March 12, the U.S. Senate passed by an 89-10 vote a sweeping bipartisan housing package co-sponsored by Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) that they describe as the largest housing bill in decades, combining deregulatory measures and program expansions with a new crackdown on large investors in single-family homes. The bill, largely aligned with a House measure, would bar institutional investors that already own at least 350 homes from buying more (with exceptions for major rehabs and build-to-rent properties, which must be sold within seven years, giving renters first-refusal rights), loosen federal rules on manufactured housing by ending the permanent chassis requirement, and expand private capital for affordable rentals by raising banks’ public welfare investment cap from 15% to 20% to leverage recent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit changes. It seeks to speed construction by streamlining certain environmental reviews, funding “pattern book” preapproved designs, and channeling new and expanded block grants into innovative construction and the reuse of abandoned buildings. The House and Senate must still reconcile differences over institutional investor rules and language on central bank digital currency — where the Senate bill favors a temporary ban and House hardliners want a permanent one — and even a compromise bill could face resistance from President Trump, who has threatened not to sign any legislation until enactment of the SAVE America Act, though the measure could still become law if he takes no action for 10 days while Congress remains in session. For more information, click here.
On March 12, the FTC announced an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to explore a new rule governing unfair or deceptive rental housing fee practices. The initiative focuses on the widening gap between advertised rent and the total amounts renters actually pay once mandatory fees and charges are added. The FTC points to “base” rents that exclude mandatory amenity, technology, administration, utility-related, and other fees, as well as security deposit practices that may obscure when and why funds are withheld. Building on recent enforcement actions against large national landlords and parallel state‑level legislation and enforcement, the FTC suggests that such practices can mislead consumers, increase search costs, distort competition, and justify a uniform federal standard that would support civil penalties and more streamlined redress. Once the ANPRM has been published in the Federal Register, comments will be accepted for 30 days. For more information, click here.
On March 12, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved to dismiss with prejudice its civil fraud case against BitClout founder Nader Al‑Naji — imposing no penalties and citing the agency’s newer crypto task force and ongoing work on a revised regulatory framework as part of its rationale — marking another in a series of Trump‑era retreats from high‑profile crypto enforcement actions against firms. BitClout, a heavily backed 2020 project that tokenized social‑media personalities via its BTCLT token, had drawn federal scrutiny after investors complained about its launch and, in 2024, the Department of Justice charged Al‑Naji with wire fraud over an alleged $3 million scheme, followed by SEC civil allegations that he and others diverted investor funds for a lavish lifestyle. The DOJ dropped its criminal case in 2025, and the SEC’s latest dismissal effectively closes the federal actions against him. For more information, click here.
On March 11, the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that both agencies describe as “historic.” The MOU is intended to reset the relationship between the agencies by reducing turf battles, avoiding duplicative regulation, and providing clearer, technology-neutral oversight — particularly in markets where securities and derivatives regimes overlap, including crypto. While it does not change either agency’s statutory authority, it creates a formal framework for coordination that will materially affect how policy, examinations, and enforcement play out in practice. The new MOU emphasizes “minimum effective dose” regulation that supports lawful innovation, fair notice (as opposed to “regulation by enforcement”), and a renewed commitment to collaboration. It is accompanied by a Joint Harmonization Initiative co-led by Robert Teply of the SEC and Meghan Tente of the CFTC, which will carry the coordination into concrete workstreams. For more information, click here.
On March 11, the FTC issued a new ANPRM to revisit its Rule Concerning the Use of Prenotification Negative Option Plans. The move follows the Eighth Circuit’s 2025 decision vacating the FTC’s 2024 amendments, which would have imposed uniform requirements on subscriptions, auto‑renewals, and trial‑to‑pay offers across all marketing channels. The ANPRM makes clear that while the FTC acknowledges that so-called negative options are widely offered and can provide benefits to both sellers and consumers, the FTC intends to address recurring billing and cancellation frictions that continue to generate a high volume of consumer complaints. The ANPRM is aimed at determining whether the FTC should retain the current 1973 Rule as is, amend it to cover a broader range of negative option offerings, adopt some or all of the vacated 2024 provisions, or pursue non‑regulatory alternatives such as guidance and education. Comments on the ANPRM will be accepted for 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. For more information, click here.
On March 11, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Travis Hill told the ABA Washington Summit that the agency is overhauling its “regulatory toolkit” to be more pro‑growth, risk‑focused, and less process‑driven, detailing reforms in five areas: supervision, capital, liquidity, Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML), and resolution/stablecoins. He described ongoing supervision changes that narrow exams to material financial risks and clear legal violations, revise key definitions and CAMELS ratings, scale back process-heavy consumer compliance reviews (including prior disparate‑impact fair lending analysis), raise dollar thresholds for serious violations, and curb off‑cycle “visitations.” On capital, he previewed two new risk‑based capital proposals — one to implement the 2017 Basel agreement with a simpler “single stack” and less “gold‑plating” for mortgages, retail, operational and market risk, and a second to improve risk sensitivity for most other banks to support more lending and a level playing field. On liquidity, he signaled revisions to the Liquidity Coverage Ratio so banks can count some borrowing capacity at the Federal Reserve, reflecting lessons from 2023’s rapid deposit runs, and noted forthcoming FDIC research on deposit behavior. He criticized the 2024 BSA “Program Rule” proposal as misaligned with the Anti‑Money Laundering Act of 2020, pledged a new, more risk‑prioritized AML framework, and encouraged banks to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies without fear of supervisory “gotcha” exams. Hill also previewed a GENIUS Act rulemaking that would deny FDIC pass‑through insurance for payment stablecoins while clarifying that tokenized deposits are treated like traditional deposits, and he outlined resolution reforms, including rescinding strict 2009 guidance on private investors in failed-bank resolutions and exploring emergency “shelf charter” pathways to let qualified nonbanks bid quickly for failing institutions, all framed as part of a pro‑growth agenda that preserves core safety and soundness. For more information, click here.
On March 11, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Katie Britt (R-AL), and a bipartisan group of colleagues reintroduced the Failed Bank Executives Clawback Act of 2026, marking the third anniversary of a significant bank collapse and aiming to hold senior executives of large failed banks financially accountable by requiring the FDIC to claw back all or part of the compensation they received in the three years before failure. Framed as a way to prevent executives from collecting large pay and bonuses while engaging in imprudent risk-taking and then “walking away scot‑free” when their institutions implode, the bill would apply to leaders of major banks whose mismanagement imposes losses on the banking system and broader economy and is intended to shift more of those costs back onto responsible decision-makers rather than taxpayers and affected workers, investors, and communities. For more information, click here.
On March 9, CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig used remarks at the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference in Boca Raton to lay out an agenda to “future‑proof” U.S. derivatives oversight through a principles‑based, “minimum effective dose” regulatory philosophy aimed at rolling back what he characterizes as overreach from Dodd‑Frank and the prior administration, restoring access and liquidity for smaller end users, and positioning the U.S. as the global leader in crypto, AI‑compute, and critical minerals markets. He pledged to reduce duplicative and overly burdensome requirements on Futures Commission Merchants and swap dealers, revisit capital, margin, reporting, and Swap Execution Facility trading rules, replace long‑running no‑action relief with permanent rulemakings, and expand use of substituted compliance and cross‑margining, while explicitly disavowing the CFTC’s prior climate‑risk work and eliminating its climate-focused units as outside the agency’s core mandate. Selig also highlighted a new “Project Crypto” harmonization effort with the SEC to deliver clearer jurisdictional lines and tailored rules for crypto spot, derivatives, non‑custodial software, and perpetual products, arguing that predictable, innovation‑friendly regulation is essential to keep crypto and other digital markets onshore. Finally, he signaled a more permissive stance toward prediction (event) markets — defending CFTC jurisdiction, promising guidance and rulemaking to clarify how such contracts can list and trade, and portraying well‑regulated prediction markets, especially on blockchains, as “truth machines” that can counter disinformation while the CFTC refocuses its enforcement program on core fraud, abuse, and manipulation rather than de facto policymaking. For more information, click here.
On March 9, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a new policy barring foreign nationals and non‑citizens from all SBA‑guaranteed loan programs — including Surety Bond and Microloan programs — building on an earlier move that made any business owned in whole or in part by a foreign national ineligible for the flagship 7(a) and 504 programs, and now requiring that all SBA loan applicants be U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals with their principal residence in the United States. Framing the change as necessary to “prioritize American job creators” given finite, congressionally capped lending authority and strong demand under President Trump’s economic agenda, Administrator Kelly Loeffler highlighted that roughly 4% of FY 2025 approvals went to small businesses partially owned by lawful permanent residents and emphasized that future SBA-backed financing will be reserved for American citizens. The policy, which follows prior steps such as citizenship verification to exclude undocumented borrowers and plans to move SBA field offices out of “sanctuary cities,” will take effect 30 days after publication. For more information, click here.
On March 5, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued proposed regulations (the Proposed Regulations) setting forth an alternative process for digital asset brokers to obtain consent from customers to receive Form 1099-DA statements electronically. This alternative process provided in the Proposed Regulations is meant to alleviate administrative tax compliance burdens for digital asset brokers. The IRS and Treasury also issued Notice 2026-4, requesting public comments on whether (i) less burdensome consent procedures should be implemented for other payee statements, including Form 1099-B, and (ii) the list of forms permitted on a Form 1099-B composite statement should include Form 1099-MISC for the purpose of reporting “staking rewards,” (i.e., additional units of cryptocurrency granted in exchange for holders locking up assets held in native cryptocurrency to help validate and secure the blockchain). The Proposed Regulations are consistent with the Trump administration’s request for priority guidance from Treasury and the IRS to provide brokers with a less burdensome method of obtaining consent from customers to furnish Form 1099-DA in an electronic format. For more information, click here.
On March 5, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a Paperwork Reduction Act notice seeking the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) reinstatement of the “Privacy of Consumer Financial Information (Regulation P)” information collection, which implements Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act privacy notice and opt‑out requirements for financial institutions sharing nonpublic personal information with nonaffiliated third parties. The notice estimates 462,760 respondents and 312,916 annual burden hours, and invites public comment by April 6, 2026 on the necessity and practical utility of the collection, the accuracy of burden estimates, ways to improve the quality and clarity of the information collected, and methods to reduce respondent burden, with all comments to be made part of the public record and reviewed by OMB. For more information, click here.
On March 3, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its Targeted Report on Stablecoins and Unhosted Wallets – Peer‑to‑Peer Transactions (P2P), finding that stablecoins — particularly USD‑pegged tokens used via unhosted wallets — now account for a large and growing share of illicit virtual asset activity and are heavily exploited by state and non‑state actors, including North Korean and Iranian networks, terrorist organizations, professional money launderers, and drug trafficking groups. While acknowledging legitimate uses, FATF highlights how price stability, liquidity, cross‑chain interoperability, and P2P functionality amplify money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risks, especially outside AML/countering the financing of terrorism (CFT)‑regulated intermediaries. The report details vulnerabilities across the stablecoin lifecycle (issuance, circulation, and redemption) and stresses the challenges posed by cross‑chain activity, data gaps, and pseudonymity. It sets out good practices and recommended actions for jurisdictions and industry, including fully applying Recommendation 15 to stablecoin issuers and intermediaries, tailoring AML/CFT obligations and supervisory frameworks to stablecoin arrangements, using blockchain analytics and programmable controls (e.g., freeze/burn, allow‑lists and deny‑lists), enhancing oversight of P2P and unhosted‑wallet activity, and strengthening cross‑border cooperation and public‑private partnerships to better detect, disrupt, and deter misuse. For more information, click here.
On February 27, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) announced updates to multiple sections of the BSA/AML Examination Manual — including the Introduction, Suspicious Activity Reporting, Payable Through Accounts, Electronic Banking, and Nondeposit Investment Products — to remove references to “reputational risk” in accordance with Executive Order 14331 of August 7, 2025. According to the FFIEC, these changes are interpretive updates and do not create any new regulatory requirements for financial institutions. For more information, click here.
State Activities:
On March 6, Wyoming signed into law HB0075 (Enrolled Act No. 19), creating a new Chapter 32 on virtual currency kiosks that authorizes their operation only by entities licensed under the Wyoming Money Transmitters Act or by chartered financial institutions, and makes unlicensed ownership, operation, or management of a virtual currency kiosk a felony punishable by at least three years’ imprisonment, a minimum $10,000 fine, or both. The law defines a “virtual currency kiosk” as a publicly accessible electronic terminal that acts as a mechanical agent to exchange virtual currency for money, bank credit, or other virtual currency — either by connecting to a separate exchange or drawing on the operator’s own holdings — directs the state banking commissioner to adopt implementing rules, and establishes confidentiality protections for supervisory information and reports, with limited exceptions for other regulators, prosecutors, and court orders. It applies immediately to all existing kiosk operators. For more information, click here.
On March 5, the Oregon Senate passed House Bill (HB) 4116 that would enact an express “opt‑out” from a key provision of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) for consumer finance loans made in Oregon. HB 4116 also updates licensing requirements and clarifies when Oregon law applies to remote and online loans. If signed by the Governor, Oregon HB 4116 would amend ORS 725.015 to add the following policy declaration: “The Legislative Assembly hereby declares that this state does not want any of the amendments set forth in section 521 of the [DIDMCA] to apply to consumer finance loans made in this state.” Section 521 of DIDMCA empowers insured state banks to charge the interest allowed by the state where the bank is located, regardless of the borrower’s location and regardless of conflicting state law (i.e., “export” their home state’s interest-rate authority). By expressly stating that Oregon does not want those amendments to apply to “consumer finance loans made in this state,” the legislature is attempting to ensure that Oregon’s own interest rate limits govern such loans, rather than the rates otherwise federally authorized for state banks. To support that policy, HB 4116 also tightens Oregon’s jurisdictional hook. A person is now expressly “subject to” the Consumer Finance Act if they make, or act as an agent, broker, or facilitator for, consumer finance loans of $50,000.00 or less to Oregon residents where, among other things, the borrower negotiates or enters into the contract while physically in Oregon or makes payments from an Oregon financial account. A DIDMCA opt-out would not impact the rates applicable to loans originated by national banks because national banks are governed by the National Bank Act (which has no opt-out). For more information, click here.
On March 3, Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed House Bill 1042, which requires several state-sponsored retirement programs — including the legislators’ defined contribution plan, the Hoosier START plan, and specified public employee and teacher retirement plans (including the pre‑1996 teachers’ account) — to offer a self-directed brokerage window that includes at least one cryptocurrency investment option, and also bars most state agencies and local governments from adopting or enforcing rules or ordinances that would prohibit, restrict, or materially impair individuals’ ability to access or use cryptocurrency, consolidating primary regulatory authority in the state’s Department of Financial Institutions. For more information, click here.
On March 3, Maine Governor Janet Mills approved Public Law Chapter 542, authorizing the registration of certain cash‑dispensing machines through the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry (NMLS) and adding an express prohibition on operating those machines as virtual currency kiosks unless the operator is licensed as a money transmitter under state law. The law preserves existing statutory limits on these devices — such as the ban on accepting deposits, loan payments, or account transfers other than between a customer’s own accounts at the same financial institution — and continues to require compliance with the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. It maintains the current registration fee structure of $50 for the first cash‑dispensing machine location and $25 for each additional machine, but increases the administrator’s daily noncompliance fine from $5 to $25 and authorizes the administrator to require background checks, collect NMLS processing fees, and set or reset renewal and reporting deadlines. The law will take effect 90 days after the close of the current legislative session, scheduled to adjourn on April 15. For more information, click here.