Fintech 2026

USA – WASHINGTON TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS Contributed by: Blank Rome LLP

However, lawsuits brought by National Treasury Employee’s Union (NTEU), the employee’s union that represents CFPB staff, were successful in thwarting some of these efforts, at least for now, and the CFPB has resumed some operations after receiving its statu - tory funding for 2026. The Bureau, while not fully eliminated, will spend 2026 in a greatly diminished state. It has suffered massive staff departures and, to date, has not resumed con - ducting meaningful examinations or enforcement activities. The agency that conducted several hundred thorough, on-site examinations per year during its first decade conducted none in 2025 and, according to recent announcements made by senior CFPB staff, plans to conduct fewer than 70 examinations in 2026, all virtual. This signals a shift back to examinations, but with far less heft and rigour than companies expe - rienced prior to 2025. Enforcement also ground to a halt in 2025, and has shown few signs of life. Many investigations pending in January of 2025 were formally closed and lawsuits filed by the CFPB under former Director Chopra for - mally withdrawn. However, the Bureau still has some active investigations that have not been closed, and at least a few have returned to active status, which might signal more enforcement activity to come in 2026, albeit with different priorities and with an agency in a much different negotiating position than it was prior to 2025. More changes may come to the CFPB by year end as well. If Democrats are able to retake control of one or both houses of Congress in the upcoming midterms, there will likely be an effort to remove Vought as Acting Director and install a permanent Director who can be confirmed by the Senate, or a push for a reform solu - tion that creates a bipartisan board or commission to oversee the CFPB’s activities. Any such developments remain to be seen; in the meantime, we expect that the Trump administration will continue its efforts to weaken and, to the extent possible, attempt to eliminate the CFPB with lawsuits tying up any major movements. The lawsuit brought by the NTEU is currently under review by the D.C.

Circuit en banc, which is expected to issue an opinion sometime later this year or in early 2027. Federal banking regulators The changes at the other federal banking regulators were more subtle, but nevertheless impactful. The federal banking regulators each removed “dispa - rate impact” from their respective fair lending exami - nation guidelines, and removed “reputational risk” from their supervisory frameworks. Both of these actions will likely ease pressure on regu - lated depositories, including fintech sponsor banks. Additionally, new Federal Deposit Insurance Corpo - ration (FDIC) Chairman Travis Hill reversed several Biden-era initiatives, and these actions will likely fur - ther facilitate bank mergers, brokered deposit relation - ships, and other fintech banking-as-a-service (BaaS) partnerships that had begun to strain under the Biden administration’s more stringent third-party oversight guidelines. With these changes, 2026 looks to be a year of continued growth in BaaS relationships, as discussed in more detail below. Further, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has actively encouraged de novo bank charter applications, and has dramatically decreased the pro - cessing time and costs associated with being granted a bank charter. From 2011 through 2024, the OCC received, on aver - age, fewer than four charter applications per year. In 2025, the OCC received 14 de novo charter applica - tions, more than triple the average number of applica - tions over the prior decade. And it is not just receiving the applications. The OCC is seeking to review these applications on an expedited timeline and appears to be moving quickly to conditionally approve the appli - cations, as evidenced by the five crypto-focused trust charters that it conditionally approved in December 2025. State regulators Deregulation at the federal level was countered by states exercising their own authorities to fill the per - ceived regulatory void and seeking to assert more authority over consumer financial services products.

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