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Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Integrating Financial Technology Innovation into Regulatory Frameworks.” The Order directs federal financial regulators to review and streamline regulations, guidance, supervisory practices, and application processes that may impede financial technology (fintech) innovation and competition, and it asks the Federal Reserve to evaluate potential direct access to Reserve Bank accounts and services for uninsured depository institutions and certain non‑bank financial firms, including digital asset companies. The Order is the latest in a series of administration actions aimed at positioning the U.S. as a global leader in digital assets and financial technology.

On May 15, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) finalized two closely linked rules on mortgage escrow accounts that respond directly to the issues we discussed in our recent post, Second Circuit on Remand in Cantero: New York Escrow-Interest Law Is Preempted, Over a Vigorous Dissent. In that decision, the Second Circuit held that New York’s 2% interest‑on‑escrow statute is preempted as applied to national banks under the Barnett Bank standard, deepening a circuit split with the First and Ninth Circuits. The OCC’s new rules both adopt the Second Circuit’s view of the underlying bank powers and attempt to bring regulatory clarity to the interest‑on‑escrow preemption question for OCC‑regulated institutions nationwide.

On May 12, the Colorado legislature passed Senate Bill 26‑189, a substantial rewrite of its 2024 law establishing consumer protections for artificial intelligence (formerly referred to as the CO AI Act), and replaced it with a more targeted framework for “automated decision‑making technology” (ADMT). The changes will take effect on January 1, 2027.

Yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the appointment of Rohit Chopra, former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner, as Secretary of the state’s new Business and Consumer Services Agency (BCSA). The new cabinet‑level agency, which formally launches on July 1, 2026, is designed to consolidate and elevate state‑level consumer and market oversight at a moment when federal enforcement is being scaled back. Governor Newsom framed the move as bringing “one of the nation’s most prominent consumer protection leaders” into state government to crack down on corporate abuse, curb junk fees, and lower costs for Californians.

On May 5, Craig Trainor, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), used the American Bankers Association’s Risk and Compliance Conference to send a clear message about how the Trump administration plans to enforce the Fair Housing Act (FHA) going forward, including with respect to how it will treat special purpose credit programs (SPCPs).