To keep you informed of recent activities, below are several of the most significant federal and state events that have influenced the Consumer Financial Services industry over the past week.
Federal Activities:
On January 12, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) proposed a rule that would amend 12 CFR 5.20 to clarify that national banks whose operations are limited to those of a trust company and related activities (national trust banks) may also conduct nonfiduciary activities, such as custody and safekeeping, in addition to their fiduciary business. The proposal would revise the chartering regulation to track the language of 12 U.S.C. 27(a) by replacing references to “fiduciary activities” with “the operations of a trust company and activities related thereto” and would confirm that special purpose banks engaged in activities other than trust company operations must still perform at least one core banking function such as receiving deposits, paying checks, or lending money. The OCC emphasizes that the changes are intended to eliminate potential confusion and align the regulation with longstanding statutory authority and supervisory practice, not to expand or restrict its chartering powers. Comments on the proposal are due by February 11. For more information, click here.On January 9, the defendants in National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) v. Vought filed a notice and exhibit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia confirming that the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has now requested funding from the Federal Reserve Board, as required by Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s December 30, 2025, order. That funding request from Acting Director Russell Vought to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recites the Consumer Financial Protection Act’s funding provision, which requires the Federal Reserve to transfer each quarter an “amount determined by the Director to be reasonably necessary” from the “combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System” for the CFPB to carry out its authorities. The letter expressly notes that the acting director disagrees with Judge Jackson’s opinion and order regarding the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel’s interpretation of “combined earnings” but states that, “pursuant to that opinion and order,” he has determined that $145,000,000 is the amount necessary for the Bureau to carry out its authorities for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. For more information, click here.
On January 9, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Ongkaruck Sripetch v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The case arises out of an SEC civil enforcement action in the Ninth Circuit and squarely presents an important remedial question the Court left open in Liu v. SEC, i.e., what counts as a “victim” for purposes of SEC disgorgement, and does the SEC have to show that investors actually lost money before it can obtain that relief? The answer will directly affect how much the SEC can recover in enforcement actions nationwide and will resolve a split among the First, Second, and Ninth Circuits. In Sripetch, the Ninth Circuit upheld more than $2.2 million in disgorgement without requiring the SEC to prove that investors suffered any monetary loss. The court held that investors can be “victims” even if they did not lose money, reasoning that it was enough that their legally protected interests were interfered with. In doing so, the Ninth Circuit: explicitly rejected the Second Circuit’s contrary decision, which held that disgorgement under the same statutory provisions is unavailable unless investors suffered pecuniary harm; and aligned itself with the First Circuit, which likewise held that pecuniary harm is not a prerequisite for disgorgement.
The petition in Sripetch frames the conflict this way, and the Court granted review on the following question: Whether the SEC may seek equitable disgorgement under 15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(5) and (d)(7) without showing investors suffered pecuniary harm. For more information, click here and here.
On January 7, the CFPB issued a final rule amending the official commentary to Regulation C (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act or HMDA) to adjust the asset‑size exemption threshold for depository institutions based on the 2.5% increase in the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI‑W) for the 12‑month period ending November 2025. For calendar year 2026, banks, savings associations, and credit unions with assets of $59 million or less as of December 31, 2025, are exempt from collecting HMDA data, although the exemption does not affect their obligation to report data required to be collected in 2025. The Bureau characterized the change as a technical, nondiscretionary application of the existing regulatory formula and, citing good cause under the Administrative Procedure Act, made the rule effective upon publication without prior notice and comment. For more information, click here.
On January 7, Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman delivered a virtual address to the California Bankers Association outlining her agenda to modernize Federal Reserve supervision and regulation by refocusing on core, material financial risks and easing unnecessary burden, particularly for community banks. She highlighted new supervisory operating principles adopted to sharpen examiner focus on interest-rate, liquidity, and other safety‑and‑soundness risks, recent steps to recalibrate capital rules (including lowering the community bank leverage ratio to the statutory minimum and restoring the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio to a backstop role), and ongoing efforts to improve stress testing. Bowman described forthcoming rulemakings to define “unsafe and unsound” practices, eliminate “reputational risk” from the supervisory framework, and update asset‑based regulatory thresholds (potentially indexing them to nominal GDP) so requirements better match banks’ size, business model, and risk profiles. She also emphasized plans to tailor community bank supervision, clarify the use of matters requiring attention (MRAs)/matters requiring immediate attention (MRIAs) and nonbinding “observations,” reduce duplicative examinations and data collections, streamline and make more predictable applications, and enhance transparency by narrowing the scope of confidential supervisory information and releasing internal supervisory manuals such as the Large Institution Supervision Coordinating Committee Operating Manual. For more information, click here.
January 6, FINRA announced that Rostin “Russ” Behnam, Tim Carter, Dan Gallagher, and Heather Traeger have been appointed to its 22‑member Board of Governors, adding expertise spanning derivatives regulation, investment banking finance, broker‑dealer legal and compliance leadership, and public pension governance. Behnam is the former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair and is now a Distinguished Fellow at Georgetown’s Psaros Center. Carter is a former CFO of an investment bank and institutional securities firm. Gallagher is a chief legal, compliance, and corporate affairs officer and a former SEC commissioner. Traeger is general counsel and chief compliance officer of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and a former chair of FINRA’s National Adjudicatory Council. FINRA CEO Robert Cook and Board Chair Scott Curtis emphasized that the new public governors — who will serve three‑year terms — enhance the Board’s capacity to provide strategic oversight as FINRA continues its investor protection and market integrity mission in increasingly complex markets. For more information, click here.
On January 6, the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau issued an order further extending the effective date of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) “revoke-all” requirement in 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(10) to January 31, 2027. That provision would require callers to treat a revocation of consent made in response to one type of informational call or text message as applying to all future calls and text messages from that caller on unrelated matters. The Bureau found good cause to continue the waiver while the FCC reviews comments filed in response to its 2025 Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which specifically asks whether the revoke-all rule should be modified or replaced to give consumers more tailored control over unwanted calls. The FCC also noted that requiring companies to implement costly, enterprisewide changes now could result in unnecessary compliance expenditures if the rule is later revised. The extension is narrow. It applies only to the portion of section 64.1200(a)(10) that would require a single revocation request to cut off all future calls and texts from the caller on unrelated topics. The order does not change any other TCPA rules or prior FCC guidance on revocation. Callers must still honor revocation requests made through reasonable methods and must continue to comply with all existing TCPA consent and revocation obligations, including the keyword-based opt-out mechanisms already moving forward. For more information, click here.
On January 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Daisey Trust v. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), affirmed the district court’s dismissal with prejudice of investors’ constitutional challenge to the FHFA’s funding structure, rejecting efforts to block foreclosures on Nevada properties encumbered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac deeds of trust. The court held that although the plaintiffs had Article III standing based on the loss of their properties through foreclosure, their claims failed on the merits because the FHFA’s assessment-based funding mechanism under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act satisfies the Appropriations Clause, i.e., it identifies a specific funding source (assessments on regulated entities) and a defined purpose (the agency’s reasonable costs and expenses). The panel also held that the statute does not violate the nondelegation doctrine, concluding that Congress supplied an “intelligible principle” by limiting assessments to amounts sufficient to cover the FHFA’s reasonable costs, and therefore amendment of the complaint would be futile. For more information, click here.
On January 1, the CFPB opened its updated HMDA data platform, which financial institutions must use to upload their loan/application registers, check and resolve edits, certify accuracy, and submit their 2025 HMDA data. Institutions that handled 60,000 or more applications and covered loans (excluding purchased loans) in the prior year must now submit HMDA data quarterly. For 2025 data, the annual filing window runs from January 1, 2026, through March 2, 2026, and the first quarterly submission window for 2026 data is April 1, 2026, through June 1, 2026. For more information, click here.
On December 31, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued FIL-63-2025 providing an update on insured depository institution (IDI) resolution planning requirements for large banks as it develops proposed amendments to the IDI Rule. The update, which applies only to FDIC‑insured depository institutions with $50 billion or more in total assets, explains that the forthcoming rulemaking will at least codify the content exemptions and FAQs adopted in April 2025 and will further refine information requirements to focus on what is most critical to executing a rapid, low‑cost resolution under the FDI Act while eliminating lower‑value, more speculative content. For 2026, the FDIC adjusts filing expectations for different groups of covered IDIs, including requiring U.S. Global Systemically Important Bank IDI subsidiaries to submit interim‑level content instead of full submissions, maintaining full submissions (with additional waivers) for certain Group A and Group B covered IDIs, and deferring some late‑2026 Group B submissions until a final rule is issued. The FDIC also announced that it will conduct “capabilities testing” in 2026 to assess covered IDIs’ ability to rapidly populate virtual data rooms, reflecting lessons learned from the spring 2023 bank failures about the need for timely data to support marketing failed institutions to potential acquirers.For more information, click here.
On December 23, the FCC submitted its annual Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act report to Congress detailing its 2020–2024 efforts to combat illegal robocalls and spoofed caller ID, including complaint volumes, 2024 enforcement activity, and policy proposals to reduce unlawful calls. The report explains how the Commission is enforcing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Truth in Caller ID Act, highlights actions in 2024 such as treating AI-generated voices as “artificial or prerecorded” under the TCPA, tightening consent and text-blocking rules, strengthening STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication and robocall mitigation plan requirements, and using new tools like Consumer Communications Information Services Threat (C‑CIST) designations. It also describes coordination with other agencies on willful scams involving spoofed calls and reviews the work of the USTelecom Industry Traceback Group in tracing high-volume, often VoIP-originated unlawful calls back to their sources to support FCC and law enforcement investigations. For more information, click here.
On December 23, the CFPB released its 2024 Financial Literacy Annual Report to Congress, outlining the Bureau’s strategy and activities to improve consumer financial literacy with a particular focus this year on youth financial education. The report describes the CFPB’s evidence-based approach to financial education and explains how the Bureau uses research, including its “building blocks” model of youth financial capability, to shape resources for schools, families, and community organizations. Emphasizing that young people increasingly interact with complex digital financial products, social media “finfluencers,” and gig economy income, the report underscores the need for early, sustained financial education across K-12, stronger support for teachers, and greater engagement of parents and caregivers. It also details how CFPB publications, classroom activities, Money Monsters materials, college financing tools, and partnerships with educators and community groups aim to help young people develop the skills, habits, and knowledge needed to avoid scams and fraud, manage borrowing, and achieve long-term financial well‑being. For more information, click here.
On December 23, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) announced the second round of proposed rule changes under its Deregulation Project, an ongoing effort to streamline regulations so they focus on credit union safety, soundness, and resilience while eliminating obsolete, duplicative, or unduly burdensome requirements. The agency is seeking public comment on four proposed amendments to its rules: revisions to segregated deposit and collateral requirements for surety and guarantor obligations (12 CFR 701.20(c)(3) and (d)); removal of a duplicative and burdensome provision governing loans to other credit unions (12 CFR 701.25(b)); updates to catastrophic act reporting requirements (12 CFR 748.1(b)); and elimination of outdated, overly prescriptive provisions on advertising and insured status disclosures (12 CFR 740.0 and 740.5). Stakeholders are encouraged to review the notices of proposed rulemaking via the Federal Rulemaking Portal and the NCUA’s Deregulation Project webpage and submit comments on the proposals. For more information, click here.
On December 23, the CFPB transmitted its 2024 Fair Lending Report to Congress, satisfying statutory reporting requirements under 12 U.S.C. § 5493(c)(2)(D), 15 U.S.C. § 1691f, and 12 U.S.C. § 2807 and outlining major shifts in the Bureau’s fair lending program under new administration priorities. The report explains that, in light of Executive Orders 14281 (Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy), 14173 (Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity), and 14331 (Guaranteeing Fair Banking for all Americans), the CFPB will no longer rely on disparate impact in fair lending supervision or enforcement, has closed open exam elements and investigations premised on disparate impact, and has terminated prior orders that rested on that theory. The Bureau will instead focus its fair lending resources on matters involving direct evidence of intentional racial discrimination with identified victims, will no longer consult on special purpose credit programs that rely on race, national origin, or sex, and will devote significant attention to implementing the new “debanking” executive order. Looking ahead, the report emphasizes that the CFPB will concentrate on areas clearly within its statutory authority, prioritize pressing consumer threats involving actual fraud and measurable monetary harm, and continue to place particular emphasis on obtaining redress for servicemembers, their families, and veterans. For more information, click here.
State Activities:
On January 7, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced the public launch of the Frontier Stable Token (FRNT), the first fiat‑backed, fully reserved stable token issued by a U.S. public entity, marking a new phase in the state’s nearly decade-long digital asset strategy. FRNT, issued under the oversight of the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, is available for purchase on the Wyoming‑domiciled Kraken exchange, natively on Solana and bridged via Stargate to Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon, and is designed for both retail and institutional use. Fully backed by U.S. dollars and short‑duration Treasuries, the token is intended to generate interest income for the state, provide a cheaper and more transparent payment rail that can reduce card fees for constituents, and offer an additional revenue source to help fund Wyoming schools. Officials highlighted pilot program results showing how FRNT can streamline government vendor payments and improve efficiency, positioning the token as both an innovation in public finance and a tool to support broader U.S. Treasury market stability. For more information, click here.On January 7, Florida Rep. John Snyder (R) filed legislation to create the Florida Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve, a special fund outside the state Treasury that would allow the state to hold and manage certain large‑cap cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation and economic volatility and to bolster the state’s financial resilience. The bill authorizes the CFO to acquire, hold, invest, and, when necessary, sell cryptocurrency and related proceeds under a prudent‑investor standard; contract with qualified custodians, technology providers using secure custody solutions, and liquidity providers; use derivatives where in the reserve’s best interest; and temporarily transfer liquidated assets to the Treasury for specified cash‑management or emergency purposes. Eligible assets must have had at least a $500 billion average market capitalization over the prior 24 months, and the measure establishes a five‑member Florida Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve Advisory Committee to advise on valuation, investment, custody, and security policies, imposes biennial reporting to legislative leaders on holdings and performance, directs the CFO to adopt implementing rules, and provides for a July 1, 2026, effective date. For more information, click here.