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On December 19, 2025, the Federal Reserve Board issued a Request for Information (“RFI”) on a proposed “Payment Account prototype.” The proposal responds to growing pressure from payments-focused institutions — particularly uninsured and novel charter entities — seeking faster, more predictable access to Federal Reserve payment rails that currently are only available with a Federal Reserve Bank master account.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will receive a new infusion of funding which was announced by the CFPB’s Acting Director, Russell Vought, who is also the Director for the Office of Management and Budget. The request for funding was required by the District of the District of Columbia judge overseeing the lawsuit brought by the CFPB’s worker’s union, the National Treasury Employees Union. Accordingly, Vought has requested $145 Million to fund the CFPB at least through March of this year.
On December 22, 2025, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (the Board) issued a final rule that rescinded a 2023 policy statement and that in turn issued a new policy statement. In a memo submitted to the Board in November, Board staff explained that the 2023 policy statement was put into place at the time to address “particular sets of facts related to certain crypto-assets” and that the policy was intended to describe how the Board would approach regulating state member banks interested in engaging in such crypto-asset activities.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its updated dollar amounts for the threshold at which consumer loans are not covered by much of the consumer protections available pursuant to the Truth In Lending Act (TILA) and the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA). For 2026, the exemption threshold increases to $73,400 from $71,900 in 2025.
On December 16, 2025, the FDIC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the application and approval requirements under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (the “GENIUS Act”) for insured state nonmember banks and state savings associations seeking to issue payment stablecoins through a subsidiary. The proposal would add a new § 303.252 to the FDIC’s filing procedures in 12 C.F.R. Part 303, establishing a tailored, statute-driven process for obtaining FDIC approval to form and operate a “permitted payment stablecoin issuer” (“PPSI”) subsidiary.
During a speech earlier this week, Comptroller of the Currency, Jonathan V. Gould addressed the House Committee on Financial Services regarding his agency’s “work implementing the President’ economic agenda by ensuring that America’s federal banking system is safe and sound, and remains the world’s most trusted, dynamic, and resilient.”
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has seen the scope of its activities, funding and staffing dramatically impacted since January of this year, has introduced a “Humility Pledge” that must be read at the beginning of a supervision exam by the CFPB examiners.
As of last week, Monday, November 10th, the Tenth Circuit has rescinded a preliminary injunction against a Colorado state law opting-out from DIDMCA and remanded the case back to the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. This means that it is now illegal for out-of-state banks that are not national banks to export interest rates into Colorado.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has faced significant operational constraints under recent changes in the present administration and Congress. With its budget significantly reduced and market concerns related to this week’s announcement about bureau leadership, financial institutions will likely have substantive questions about their ongoing consumer financial services compliance.
The Supreme Court handed down an opinion last year regarding national bank preemption in the case Cantero v. Bank of America, which we wrote about here. In that case, which involved a Second Circuit decision regarding a New York state law requiring the payment of interest on mortgage escrow balances, the Court reemphasized the preemption standard established in its Barnett Bank of Marion County v. Nelson opinion, which was enacted into law by Congress in Dodd-Frank (12 U.S.C. §25b).