A Close Look at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Proposal to Supervise Large Nonbank Providers of Digital Wallets and Payment Apps

Consumer Finance Monitor

Our special guest is Brian Johnson, Managing Director of Patomak Global Partners and former CFPB Deputy Director. In Nov. 2023, the CFPB issued a proposed rule to supervise nonbank companies that qualify as larger participants in a market for “general-use digital consumer payment applications.” We first discuss the CFPB’s authority to supervise nonbank entities considered to be “a larger participant of a market for other consumer financial products or services” and its previous use of that authority. We look next at how the CFPB has defined the relevant market in its current proposal and its rationale for the proposal. We then discuss the deficiencies in the CFPB’s cost benefit analysis of the proposal and how the proposal reflects changes to the CFPB’s approach to rulemaking under Director Chopra. We conclude with a discussion of possible litigation challenges to a final rule and issues companies likely to be covered by a final rule should be considering.

Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel in Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group, leads the conversation.