Ricketts, Flood Introduce CRA Legislation to Overturn CFPB’s Regulatory Overreach of Consumer Payment Companies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and U.S. Representative Mike Flood (R-NE-01) introduced a bicameral Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s latest overreach in the digital consumer payment market. The legislation would nullify the CFPB’s burdensome “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications” rule, which took effect on January 9, 2025.

“Following their election loss, the Biden-Harris CFPB rushed an eleventh-hour rule to attack non-bank digital consumer payment applications,” said Senator Ricketts. “This one-size-fits-all solution in search of a problem unnecessarily expands the CFPB’s authority. Our legislation eliminates barriers to innovation, cuts red tape, and supports our job-creators. Thank you, Congressman Flood, for leading this common-sense effort in the House. I urge my colleagues to consider this legislation without delay.”

“Over the last four years, progressive activists sought to dramatically expand the regulatory authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” said Representative Flood. “One of the tools they used to achieve their goal was the Larger Participants Rule, which has attempted to leverage the agency’s examination authority to regulate non-bank consumer payments firms. Rolling back this regulation is critical to ensuring that the CFPB doesn’t become a barrier to innovation for job creators across America. Thank you to my colleagues in the House who are joining this effort and to Senator Ricketts for leading on this bicameral effort as well.”

“Technology helps Americans of all backgrounds manage their financial lives. The CFPB’s rule doesn’t benefit consumers or the market, but it would stifle fintech innovation,” said Carl Holshouser, Executive Vice President of TechNet. “The final rule’s one-size-fits-all approach fails to follow applicable law, does not identify any specific consumer harm, and largely ignores stakeholder comments. Instead, the Bureau casts a wide net to turn itself into a general technology regulator instead of a financial one. TechNet is thankful to Representative Flood and Senator Ricketts for introducing this important resolution and looks forward to Congress rescinding the CFPB’s rule.”

“The final rule was deeply flawed, failed to define a market or identify specific risks to consumers, and conflated diverse uses and products into a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Penny Lee, President and CEO of the Financial Technology Association. “This was an overreach by the CFPB as payment companies are well-regulated at the state and federal levels. We applaud Senator Pete Ricketts and Congressman Mike Flood in leading the Congressional Review Act process.”

Bill text can be found here.

BACKGROUND

On November 21, 2024, the CFPB finalized a rule entitled “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for a General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications”— one of the Biden Administration’s many midnight rulemakings at the end of the year. Effective Jan. 9, 2025, the rule stretches CFPB’s powers to establish new supervision and examination authority over nonbank entities identified as “larger participants” in the general-use digital consumer payment applications market. These entities include payment apps, digital wallets, peer-to-peer payment apps, and other entities. “Larger participants” are entities that facilitate at least 50 million consumer payment transactions annually. Payment apps like Paypal or Venmo are examples.

Many payment companies are already regulated at the federal and state level. Consumers are having positive experiences in engaging with these services. Despite minimal consumer complaints about payment services—accounting for only 1% of the CFPB’s 1.3 million complaints in 2023—the CFPB chose to layer additional oversight on an already well-regulated industry.

This one-size-fits-all solution in search of a problem expands CFPB’s authority without properly identifying a specific market it seeks to supervise or the risks within a specific market that pose harm to consumers that existing regulation doesn’t already mitigate. It will layer overreaching, duplicative regulation that could stifle innovation and lead to fewer services and increased costs.

Further, the cost-benefit analysis supporting the rule is insufficient, unrealistic, and notably underestimates a CFPB exam to cost just $25,001.