U.S. Market Close 12/10/2025

DOW 30  +1.05% +497.46 48,057.75

S&P 500  +0.67% +46.17 6,886.68

NASDAQ 100  +0.42% +107.75 25,776.44

NEW PRICING: January 1, 2026

Option A (full boat): 1 year $8,900

dan@afspassociation.com

Amazon solves Walmart, Target, and Kroger’s shoplifting problem

Customers don’t like locked-up items or having their receipts checked, while stores don’t like people stealing.

Most Americans pay for their purchases with credit or debit cards.

“Cash accounted for 14% of all U.S. consumer payments by number of payments, while credit and debit cards accounted for 35% and 30% of payments, respectively,” according to a report from the United States Federal Reserve.

Americans actually use a pretty diverse array of ways to pay for things.

“In total, U.S. consumers made an average of 17 credit card payments, 14 debit card payments, seven cash payments, six ACH payments, one check payment, and two with other methods every month,” according to the data.

The ACH payments are likely recurring bills like mortgages and utility bills, while credit and debit cards would mostly be used in stores.

Read more at The Street

AI in Financial Services: Understanding the White House Action Plan – and What It Leaves Out – Part 1: Ballard CFS Group

Today’s episode features Part 1 of our October 30, 2025 webinar, “AI in Financial Services: Understanding the White House Action Plan – and What It Leaves Out.” In this installment, a panel of leading experts breaks down the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence in financial services—from foundational concepts to the latest regulatory developments.

Moderated by Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel, founder and former longtime leader of Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group, and Greg Szewczyk, chair of the firm’s Privacy and Data Security Group, the discussion cuts through hype and uncertainty to provide clear, practical insights. Alan and Greg guide an energetic conversation about how AI has become a strategic priority for banks, credit unions, payments companies, and fintechs.

Our panel includes:

Charley Brown, leader of Ballard Spahr’s technology and patents teams, who explains how institutions can protect and capitalize on AI-enabled technologies;

Dean Ball, former White House senior advisor and one of the architects of the White House AI Action Plan, who provides a rare inside look at the policy landscape;

Read more at Ballard Spahr L.L.P

Foreign investors dump consumer, finance, tech stocks; shift to telecom, oil & gas

Foreign investors continued their sectoral reshuffle in the second half of November, extending their selling in consumer, financial and information technology stocks, while increasing exposure to telecom, oil & gas and capital goods.

FMCG remained the biggest casualty among consumer-facing sectors. FIIs offloaded Rs 2,722 crore worth of FMCG shares in the latter half of November, following sales of more than Rs 2,040 crore in the first half. Autos also saw sustained pressure, with FIIs selling Rs 1,257 crore after trimming positions by Rs 385 crore earlier in the month.

Financials registered continued outflows as well. FIIs sold Rs 1,137 crore in the second half after exiting over Rs 2,041 crore in the first half. The IT sector remained under heavy selling, with Rs 921 crore worth of outflows in the latter half following a much larger Rs 4,873 crore selloff in the first half of November.

Read more at TradingView.com

CFPB Proposes Narrowed Small Business Lending Rule to Implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act: Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. 

On November 13, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a “reconsideration rule” that proposes significant revisions to its rule to implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA). Section 1071 requires financial institutions to collect and report data on credit applications for women-owned, minority-owned and small businesses to enforce fair lending laws and identify community development needs.  

Based on stakeholder feedback, ongoing litigation and recent executive directives, the CFPB now proposes a narrower, incremental approach in its rulemaking. The CFPB cited several reasons for this newest proposal, including: (i) narrowing the scope of the rule to focus on core lending products and to reduce complexity and errors, thus improving reliability and data quality; (ii) reducing compliance burden for smaller institutions that may lack infrastructure for complex reporting; (iii) providing greater market stability by avoiding chilling effects on small business lending caused by high compliance costs; (iv) mirroring existing data collecting regimes, such as that of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, by adopting an incremental data collection approach; and (v) streamlining the regulation to align with recent executive orders issued by the Trump administration.

Key Proposed Changes

Read more at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. 

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Treasury, IRS provide guidance on new tax benefits for health savings account participants under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill: Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

IR-2025-119, Dec. 9, 2025

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service today issued Notice 2026-05 PDF providing guidance on new tax benefits for Health Savings Account participants under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill. These changes expand HSA eligibility, which allows more people to save and to pay for healthcare costs through tax-free HSAs.

Expansion of HSA Eligibility Under the OBBB

The OBBB expands access to HSAs by making the following changes:

Telehealth and Remote Care Services: The OBBB made permanent the ability to receive telehealth and other remote care services before meeting the high-deductible health plan (HDHP) deductible while remaining eligible to contribute to an HSA, effective for plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2025.

Read more at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Bipartisan state bills would cap interest on payday loans, increase regulation

State report found some payday lenders charge as much as 850 percent interest

A pair of bipartisan bills in the state Legislature would cap interest rates on payday and installment loans and implement new restrictions on short-term lending.

State Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, as well as state Reps. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, and Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D-Green Bay, are circulating the legislation for co-sponsorship.

The bills would cap the annual percentage rate for payday and installment loans at 36 percent, according to a memo from the lawmakers. An annual percentage rate, or APR, measures a loan’s interest rate and additional fees.

Read more at Wisconsin Public Radio

ACH Tokenization: Why Non-Bank Lenders Should Consider This Security Layer: PAYLIANCE

For non-bank lenders operating in subprime and near-prime markets, both growth and security are essential. As your ACH volumes increase, whether you’re managing hundreds or thousands of daily transactions, protecting sensitive borrower data while maintaining operational efficiency and staying ahead of regulatory requirements becomes increasingly complex.

The challenge is building infrastructure that enables sustainable growth while strengthening your security posture and positioning your business ahead of evolving standards. This matters not just for compliance, but for maintaining trust with borrowers and partners.

ACH tokenization addresses this head-on by transforming how lenders store and process payment data. Here’s why this technology matters for your business.

The Regulatory Landscape: Nacha’s Focus on Data Protection

Nacha regulations mandate that originators and processors render stored ACH data unreadable, typically through encryption. Here’s the critical distinction many lenders miss: the mandate applies specifically to data at rest. While encryption is recommended for data in transit, the core requirement is protecting account credentials when stored.

Read more at PAYLIANCE

Point-of-Sale Finance Series: Solar Finance Under the Microscope: The Payments Law Podcast

Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast

Speakers

Jason M. Cover Mark J. Furletti Andrew Thurmond

In this crossover episode of Payments Pros and The Consumer Finance Podcast, Jason Cover, Mark Furletti, and Andrew Thurmond return to unpack the complex landscape of residential solar finance. They highlight practical complications lenders face with home improvement projects involving power purchase agreements, leases, tax credit, retail installment contracts, renewable energy certificates, and more. The discussion also provides insight on trends in the solar industry, bankruptcy, the rise of solar disclosure requirements and state-level oversight, and compliance measures to mitigate risk.

Read more at Troutman Pepper Locke

Contact Chuck.Sockol@mcrc.biz to discuss your recovery needs

Our financial education curriculum doesn’t prepare us for reality

I’m a high school student in Fairfax County, and I’m worried about the future of my generation. Virginia’s Board of Education commits itself to “excellence through continuous improvement.” However, in the past few decades, the board has faltered in its assiduity. Financial literacy is a skill essential to success beyond graduation, however, the current financial education curricula in Virginia is vague and ineffective, leaving students vastly unprepared to effectively manage their finances.

When I reviewed Virginia’s Economics and Personal Finance curriculum—both in-person and through Virtual Virginia’s online courses—I found the same problem: zero coverage of cryptocurrency, blockchain, or digital wallets. These aren’t niche topics. My generation lives and breathes them. Yet our curriculum focuses on checking accounts and credit cards while ignoring the digital economy where we work, invest, and innovate.

This gap is dangerous. Chainalysis reported $4.2 billion lost to crypto scams in 2025 alone. Meanwhile, 58% of Gen Z invests in cryptocurrency or NFTs (CFA Institute), and Virginia’s blockchain jobs grew 35% this year (LinkedIn). Virginia’s decentralized system of curricula makes it worse.

Read more at FAIRFAX TIMES

Billionaires Are Ditching Private Equity Funds -- And Betting Billions on Direct Deals Instead

Billionaires are quietly rewriting the private-equity playbook, and UBS (NYSE:UBS) says the shift could be one of the most consequential capital-allocation pivots of the coming year. In its latest Billionaire Ambitions Report, UBS found that almost a third of the 87 surveyed individuals controlling 10-figure fortunes plan to scale back commitments to private equity funds over the next 12 months, the biggest expected decline across more than a dozen investment categories. With higher borrowing costs squeezing deal profits and shrinking payouts to limited partners, the traditional fund model is facing the kind of pressure that could be reshaping how the ultra-rich think about private markets.

What's rising in its place is a surge in direct deals, where billionaires can tilt the playing field toward control rather than waiting on fund distributions. Roughly half of those surveyed intend to boost exposure to direct stakes in companies, marking the strongest increase among all categories tracked. UBS strategist Maximilian Kunkel said entrepreneurial investors could be seeing a more attractive opportunity set as political, policy, interest-rate, and geopolitical uncertainties possibly begin to ease. 

Read more at GuruFocus

We advise financial technology companies at the

start-up, product development, and product evolution stages. PS

Top Stories of the Week in Fintech

KlarnaUSD has hit virtual wallets this week as the buy-now-pay-later giant releases its first stablecoin. 

The bank has stated it is the first to launch the stablecoin on Tempo, an independent blockchain owned by Stripe and Paradigm. 

Stablecoins will be used by Klarna as a way to decrease costs for both merchants and consumers. 

In a statement, the company reaffirmed that CEO Sebastian Siemiatowski was previously a ‘vocal crypto skeptic’. 

Stablecoins have made multiple headlines in recent months as a result of the introduction of regulatory frameworks such as the GENUIS Act, paving the way for businesses looking to capitalise on the opportunity. 

Read more at FINTECH MAGAZINE

Smart Banks Aren’t Building Card Programs, They’re Launching Them

Executive Summary

• Turnkey credit card programs let smaller banks launch competitive products fast without the heavy cost and complexity of building in-house.
• These programs help institutions keep ownership of customer relationships and revenue while gaining access to valuable cardholder data.
• By offloading infrastructure, banks can focus on growth, loyalty and experience instead of operations.

Credit card programs can drive revenue and build stronger customer relationships, but building a complete program is expensive. Credit cards consistently deliver return on assets between 3% and 6%, outperforming the banking sector’s average ROA of around 1%. However, the technology, compliance, rewards infrastructure and servicing requirements of creating an in-house program outweigh the potential ROI for smaller banks and credit unions.

"Turnkey credit card programs have been a game-changer for both companies and banks alike. They allow financial institutions to issue credit cards to customers without having to build an entire infrastructure from the ground up," Chikako Tyler, chief operating officer at California Bank and Trust, tells The Financial Brand.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Why Your Card Program Benchmarks Are Probably Wrong, and How to Fix Them

Need to Know

• Credit card profitability isn’t driven by interchange or volume — up to 80% of profit comes from interest on revolving balances. Programs heavy on transactors often look healthy but barely break even after rewards and operating costs are factored in.
• Community banks and credit unions must track different benchmarks than national issuers to win. Metrics like Net Interest Margin (NIM), ROA, charge-offs, churn and revolving user penetration matter more than swipe volume or rewards redemption.
• Hidden and underestimated costs quietly erode ROI. From rewards and fraud management to capital needs, compliance and operational overhead, many smaller institutions miss the true cost of running a card program — and budget too late.

Credit card programs consistently deliver return on assets between 3% and 6%, outperforming the banking sector’s average ROA, which is just over 1%. But program profitability often depends on knowing what drives returns and what costs smaller financial institutions often miss.

Interest income from cardholders who carry balances generates 80% of program profit, not interchange or fees. However, hidden expenses, from program costs, fraud management and operational overhead can often overrun projections. Get either dynamic wrong and it’s easy to track the wrong metrics or blow through budgets on costs banks don’t anticipate.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Online Lenders Alliance Issues New Report Evaluating Effects of CFPB’s Payment Provisions on Small Dollar Credit Market

Survey of OLA Member Companies Shows Rule Has Led To Reduced Credit Access, Higher Delinquency Rates, Increased Defaults, More Loans Sent To Collections, and Increased Borrower Frustration-

ARLINGTON, Va. (December 9, 2025)—The Online Lenders Alliance today issued a new report, “Evaluating the Effects of the CFPB’s Payment Provisions on the Small-Dollar Credit Market,” which presents the findings of a survey of OLA member companies on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2017 Payday, Vehicle, Title and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans Rule. 

While the Rule’s ability-to-repay requirements were rescinded in 2020 and the Bureau has announced that it intends to propose rulemaking to reconsider the remaining portions of the rule, OLA’s survey sought to understand the real-world impact of the Rule’s payment provisions on the small dollar marketplace. Based on the information provided by OLA members, the report’s key findings include:

Read the full report at Online Lenders Alliance (OLA)

Customized Payment Processing and

Merchant Service Provider for Your Business EC

How a Hybrid Strategy Balances Digital Speed with the Trust of Physical Cards

Need to Know

• 98% of consumers still say having a physical card is important. Cards offer a sense of control, identity and reliability that digital-only options haven’t replicated, and tap-to-pay serves as a behavioral bridge between physical and digital habits.
• More than 70% of consumers want their card immediately when opening an account or replacing a lost one, yet many institutions still haven’t prioritized instant issue. Cloud-based solutions have made it more accessible than ever — but even those offering it often fail to market the capability.
• Sixty percent of consumers care about what their card is made of, and among Gen Z, 64% say sustainable materials would improve their perception of a financial institution. Offering eco-friendly card options has moved from niche to competitive differentiator.

For all the talk about digital transformation in financial services, one thing has remained surprisingly consistent: consumers still value the physical card. In fact, recent Vericast research found that 98% of consumers say having a physical debit or credit card is important, and three out of four say receiving that card instantly from their financial institution matters.

Read more at The Financial Brand

More than one in four self-checkout shoppers admit to stealing as they are 'sick of high prices'

A new survey has revealed that more than 20 percent of Americans have admitted to stealing at self-checkout, arguing that today's prices 'feel unfair.'

On Tuesday, LendingTree released a new survey showing that 27 percent of 2,050 US shoppers have deliberately taken an item without scanning it, marking a 15-percent increase from 2023. 

About 47 percent said the financial climate drove them to steal, pointing to the rising difficulty of being able to afford everyday essentials. 

Nearly 46 percent of respondents who confessed said the surge in prices - especially those associated with President Donald Trump’s tariffs - motivated their actions.

'Even though people know that stealing is wrong and most understand the risk they're taking, tough times require tough choices and lots of people are clearly willing to take the risk,' LendingTree chief consumer finance analyst Matt Schulz said.

Read more at ThisIsMoney

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Future Outlook of Money Transfer App Market: Key Strategic Business Opportunities by 2025-2032

Worldwide Market Reports has introduced a new research publication titled "Money Transfer App Market, 2025", offering detailed insights into market size, growth patterns, trends, and dynamics with forecasts extending to 2032. This study is the outcome of an in-depth analysis of evolving market developments and provides a comprehensive examination of the key factors influencing the industry, including manufacturers, suppliers, major market participants, and consumers. The report outlines the primary drivers of the global Money Transfer App market, along with segmentation based on product type, application, end-user, and geographical region.

As part of our Black Friday Deals Live, this report is now available at an exclusive discount of up to 60%, making it an ideal opportunity for businesses and stakeholders to gain valuable market intelligence at a significantly reduced cost. The report highlights the major elements driving the growth of the global Money Transfer App market and segments the market by product type, application, end-user, and geographical region. Additionally, the research outlines significant strategic developments across the industry-such as agreements, product launches, collaborations, partnerships, joint ventures, and regional expansions-carried out by leading market players at both global and regional levels.

Read more at OPENPR.COM

The Urgent Leadership Playbook for AI Transformation

• Banks confront an unsustainable profit squeeze, as revenue growth decelerates to 2-4% annually while operating costs rise relentlessly, driven by regulatory compliance, technology upgrades, and digital marketing expenses that have increased customer acquisition costs by over 20% since 2023.
• BCG estimates that AI implementation can slash banks’ costs by as much as 40% compared to business-as-usual scenarios while selectively passing 15-20% of savings to customers.
• Despite ranking their institutions second-highest on AI maturity, fewer than 20% of banks have established quantified AI targets and fewer than 15% have rebalanced investment portfolios toward technology-driven revenue and cost initiatives.
• AI leaders in financial services allocate 10.5% of IT budgets to AI initiatives versus 9.5% for laggards, plan to upskill 27% of employees compared to 13% for slow movers, and deploy 62% of AI initiatives versus just 12% for laggards, achieving time-to-impact of 9 to12 months instead of 12 to18 months.

Read more at The Financial Brand

A Credit Union’s Five-Point Anti-Fraud Strategy Pays Off

Need to Know:

• Seven out of ten financial institutions are seeing major increases in financial fraud. Citadel Credit Union is attacking the problem with a combination of AI, trained staff and law enforcement allies.
• Citadel’s key fraud metrics have been falling as it continues to beef up its anti-fraud program.
• Citadel’s chief risk officer shares the outline of its efforts and practical tips for progress.

At Citadel Credit Union, protecting our members’ financial security means staying several steps ahead of increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes. Traditional defenses like voice verification, two-factor authentication, even the most complex passwords, no longer suffice to stop criminals. They adapt faster than ever.

Read more at The Financial Brand

The Importance of Teaching Financial Skills Early for Lasting Wealth Accumulation

The Importance of Early Financial Education in a Changing Economy

In an era marked by unpredictable financial markets, understanding money management has become more crucial than ever. Early exposure to financial concepts goes far beyond learning how to balance a budget or steer clear of debt—it lays the groundwork for building lasting wealth across generations. Those who grasp financial fundamentals are better prepared to manage risks, sidestep expensive errors, and take advantage of the long-term benefits of consistent investing. Research consistently shows that financial literacy programs at the college level influence investment choices, reduce the impact of psychological biases, and pave the way for sustained wealth growth.

Understanding Behavioral Finance: Overcoming Mental Pitfalls

Behavioral finance reveals how our minds can lead us astray when making money decisions. Common pitfalls like anchoring, overconfidence, and herd mentality are not just theoretical—they frequently trip up even experienced investors. For instance, a 2024 study from the Pakistan Stock Exchange demonstrated that individuals with stronger financial knowledge were less likely to fall victim to anchoring, where irrelevant benchmarks like past prices distort judgment. Likewise, overconfidence—which often results in excessive trading and underestimating risks—was found to decrease as financial education improved, enabling people to better evaluate probabilities and diversify their investments.

Read more at BITGET.COM

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