Last week I reported that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it will no longer prioritize enforcement actions taken on BNPL transactions, in accordance with a Biden administration issued rule that classified BNPL providers as credit card issuers and subjected them to the Truth in Lending Act.
Since then, New York has stepped up by establishing a licensing and oversight framework for the BNPL industry with new legislation included in its 2026 budget that provides tougher state rules requiring BNPL providers to be licensed with the state, offer credit disclosures, create dispute resolution standards, offer data privacy protections, enable risk-based underwriting, and put in place limits on charges and fees.
However outside of New York, the situation for consumers across the country is becoming more dire…
1) Supplementary leverage ratios – US regulators are expected to put forward proposals this summer to slash capital rules for banks that were designed to prevent another 2008-style crash. The proposals aim to cut the supplementary leverage ratio that requires banks to hold high-quality capital against risky assets like loans and derivatives.
The changes don't come as a surprise, as Trump promised during his second term to slash 10 regulations for every new one added. Critics warn that it is the wrong time to slash protections, given economic uncertainty and market volatility. However bank lobbyists have long argued that the rules punish them for holding relatively low-risk assets like US treasures and hinders their ability to provide more loans.
2) Broadband deployment and access – FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington is proposing a DOGE-style overhaul of the agency's operations, including large cuts to the Universal Service Fund that subsidizes broadband deployment and access. Simington said the fund should reduce spending on fiber networks and give money to Elon Musk's Starlink. He also argued that the FCC is using too many staff hours on reviewing license applications and should instead use automated systems to approve more license requests. Let me guessing, using Elon Musk's AI?
The FCC historically has operated independently from the White House, but Trump issued an executive order in February declaring that it is no longer an independent agency, along with other federal regulatory bodies.
3) Click-to-Cancel – The FTC voted to delay enforcement of the Negative Option Rule, which is commonly referred to as the “click-to-cancel” rule and requires companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up.
The rule would require businesses to offer customers the ability to cancel subscriptions through the same method they used to sign up. For example, if they signed up on a website by themselves, they need to be able to cancel via that same website by themselves, without having to call a phone number or message support.
The rule went into effect on January 19th (a day before Trump took office), but enforcement of some provisions was delayed until May 13th, and now the FTC is delaying enforcement by another 60 days, until July 14th. WP Engine must be celebrating with champagne right now!
4) Data Brokers – The CFPB said in December it planned to close a loophole under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the law that protects Americans' personal data collected by credit bureaus, which treats data brokers differently than other consumer reporting agencies. The new rules were designed to limit the ability of US data brokers to sell sensitive information about Americans, including financial data, credit history, and Social Security numbers.
However the new rules were withdrawn on Tuesday because the White House said they are “not aligned with the Bureau's current interpretation” of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Privacy advocates have long called for the government to use the Fair Credit Reporting Act to rein in data brokers, but the Financial Technology Association, an industry lobby group representing non-bank fintech companies, asked the administration to withdraw the CFPB's rule, claiming it would be “harmful to financial institutions' efforts to detect and prevent fraud.”