A Blue Wave Reshapes the Consumer Finance Landscape

by A.J. S. Dhaliwal, Mehul N. Madia, Amanda Yap

On November 3, Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress and made significant gains in state offices, including flipping five Republican-held attorney general seats. The results will shift congressional oversight and could strengthen state enforcement coalitions when the new Congress and state officials take office in January.

With control of both chambers, Democrats will set congressional committee agendas and may increase scrutiny of consumer financial services. Expected areas of focus include lending costs, household debt, credit reporting, debt collection, ability-to-repay standards, and optional financial products. Hearings, investigations, subpoenas, and document requests could bring industry practices into public view. Democratic lawmakers may also seek to restore or strengthen the CFPB following the current administration’s efforts to scale back the Bureau.

The state-level election results may also affect enforcement priorities. Newly elected attorneys general in Texas, Georgia, Ohio, and other states could join or lead multistate investigations into lending and other financial services practices, particularly where federal enforcement has receded. The election does not determine which matters officials will pursue, but it may alter the direction and coordination of state oversight.

Read more at Sheppard

FTC and DOJ report on older-adult consumer fraud by Ballard CFS Group 

The cost of consumer fraud targeting older adults could have been as high as $119.5 billion in 2025, the FTC said in an annual report to Congress.

The report also outlines the FTC’s outreach efforts to combat fraud against older adults. The Justice Department released a similar annual report.

The FTC report summarizes 2025 findings from the Consumer Sentinel Network which collects reports of fraud and other consumer problems.

Last year, older adults reported losing more money in the aggregate to fraud that began on social media than to fraud that reached them by any other method of contact.

Read more at Ballard Spahr L.L.P. 

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Arizona Court Permanently Bars Debt Relief Companies and Telemarketing in FTC Default Judgment by A.J. S. Dhaliwal, Mehul N. Madia, Amanda Yap

On October 14, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona entered a default judgment against seven corporate defendants in an FTC action involving a nationwide debt relief operation. Because the defendants failed to respond, the court treated the complaint’s allegations as true and found violations of the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the FTC’s Impersonation Rule, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Gramm Leach Bliley Act. The court’s order found the defendants:

Misrepresented the services and likely results. The defendants promised substantial debt reductions, said upfront fees would be included in the debt relief, and claimed negative credit effects would be temporary. The court found that consumers, many of them older adults, paid thousands of dollars for services that were nonexistent, not as described, or never provided, and often ended up deeper in debt with worsened credit scores.

Impersonated trusted institutions. The defendants posed as consumers’ credit card issuers, government agencies, and consumer reporting agencies. They also used information obtained from credit reports to make those representations and charge consumers.

Read more at Sheppard

Lenders paint bleak picture of consumer credit in 3Q survey

Midterm drubbing may complicate GOP lame duck priorities; Lenders paint bleak picture of consumer credit in 3Q survey—and more in Bankers' Hours

After Republicans' punishing night on Tuesday, the party will lose its trifecta in Washington, and now have a short amount of time to finish up any legislative business before handing over control of Capitol Hill. 

The biggest outstanding items are pending nominations — primarily for federal judges — and spending bills, either in the form of full-year appropriations bills or a continuing resolution to extend government funding at current levels. With respect to banking, the list of priorities is short: Brian Johnson's nomination to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a potential effort to pass the crypto market structure bill that the Senate rejected in September.

Read more at American Banker at LinkedIn

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FTC Enforcement Risks for B2B Payment Processors and Fintech Companies

Payment processors have long focused their compliance efforts on managing risk among the merchants they serve, including by using enhanced underwriting and monitoring to reduce the risk of facilitating unlawful merchant conduct. Recent enforcement activity shows that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other federal regulators are now also devoting significant attention to the other side of that relationship: how payment processors market, sell, bill, and provide services to merchants and other business customers.

The trend is particularly important for innovative software and financial technology companies that combine payments with subscription-based software and other services. Pricing claims, automatic renewals, recurring billing, and customer complaints about cancellation practices and so-called hidden or junk fees can all attract scrutiny, even in commercial relationships between sophisticated businesses.

Read more at JD Supra, LLC

This Week’s Top 5 Stories in Fintech

Top stories in the fintech industry include AI expansion into Hong Kong from HSBC, a US$80m Series C funding for Pliant and research from Capgemini

What’s Behind HSBC Expanding Its AI Hub into Hong Kong?

While international competitors trim staff to offset technological disruption, HSBC is choosing to build the research engine behind it in Hong Kong. This applied research facility will focus directly on AI and emerging technologies across the banking industry.

The bank plans to launch the institute in the first quarter of 2027. Chief Executive Georges Elhedery announced the development on Monday at Hong Kong Fintech Week, marking a major milestone for the city’s largest lender.

Read more at Fintech Magazine

Were you Sitting on the Sidelines Until

After the Midterms?

You’re not alone. Many business owners and executives are waiting for greater clarity from the November elections before committing to their

next phase of growth.

Stop waiting to make the decision

If additional capital will be part of your growth strategy once the political

and economic environment becomes clearer, now may be the right time

to begin the conversation.

A total of $541m was raised this week across 16 FinTech deals

It was a modest week for FinTech deals this week, with a total of $541m raised across 16 deals.

This represented a significant drop from the previous week, which saw $2.8bn raised across 17 deals. However, the lion share of the funding from that week came from the colossal $1.85bn investment secured by Ramp.

Despite the small total funding for the week, more than half was accounted for by just two deals.

The biggest deal of this week was secured by California-based infrastructure and enterprise software company Whop. It closed its Series D round at a $5.1bn valuation, coming just months after a $200m strategic investment from Tether had valued the business at $1.6bn.

Read more at Fintech Global

Your Plain Free Checking Account is Why You’re Losing Gen Z

Here is a number worth reading twice. Millennials and Gen Z now account for two-thirds of all newly opened primary checking accounts in this country. That comes from J.D. Power’s first study of the two generations, released in September.

Just as telling, online banks and fintechs currently hold 20% of existing primary checking relationships among these generations, but they are capturing 28% of newly opened accounts. These are the consumers driving much of the new account growth, and you can’t assume they’ll choose your institution.

The easy explanation is technology. Their app is slicker, your core is older, their marketing budget is bigger.

Read more at The Financial Brand

PayYield lifts net portfolio yield on every consumer repayment: clearing available funds on debits that

decline today, and cutting what you pay to accept

the dollars that do clear.

CFPB’s Latest Semiannual Report Highlights a Dramatic Shift in the Bureau’s Regulatory Priorities by Alan S. Kaplinsky & John L. Culhane, Jr.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s newly released Semi-Annual Report to Congress for January–June 2026 offers a revealing account of the Trump Administration’s transformation of the Bureau. The report, released on October 27, 2026, describes an agency that has substantially narrowed its enforcement priorities, abandoned or terminated numerous matters pursued under former Director Rohit Chopra, reduced the scope of its supervisory examinations, and advanced a deregulatory agenda that includes, among other things, significant changes to the Bureau’s fair lending regulations.

The report is particularly notable for what it says about the Bureau’s approach to enforcement. Although the CFPB continues to pursue matters involving identifiable consumer harm, it now emphasizes voluntary remediation, due process, and enforcement grounded in what it regards as clear statutory authority. At the same time, the Bureau has made combating alleged unlawful debanking a central priority and has redirected its fair lending efforts toward intentional discrimination involving identifiable victims.

Read more at Ballard Spahr L.L.P. 

Growing Share of Americans Say Social Media Is an Important News Source for Them

Social media has become increasingly central to the way Americans get news.

A majority of U.S. adults (58%) now say social media is an important way for them to keep up with the news, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey from the Pew-Knight Initiative. This includes 13% who say it is the most important way they get news.

When we last asked this question in 2022, 43% of Americans said social media was an important way they got news, including 5% who said it was the most important way.

The share of Americans who at least sometimes get news from social media also has ticked up within the past year. And specific social media sites or apps, such as TikTok and Instagram, have become news destinations for more Americans over the last few years.

Read more at PEW Research

Our 2026 LEND360 Conference was a Great Success!

We had a record number of attendees, including record numbers of CEOs and lenders. Networking was king with a record number of meetings booked through our LEND360 platform combined with numerous additional opportunities for participants to make that next connection. The content was incredible, too.

Highlight speakers included Wade Arnold of Moov, Naftali Harris of SentiLink, Sherrie Rees of First Electronic Bank, Jer Woods of Block, Rodney Williams of SoLo Funds, Manoj Verma of TabaPay, Sarah Hartung of Old National Bank, Meredith Winegar of

Old National Bank, and famed political commentator

Karl Rove.

We had over 20 focused content sessions that addressed key issues facing our industry using the expertise of our 100+ speakers to give participants concrete takeaways. 

We extend a special thank you to the 90+ sponsors (including a sold-out exhibit floor)

that made this show possible. We are already working to make next year’s show even better and look forward to seeing everyone at the

2027 LEND360 event in Chicago on October 4-6.

Marketing Doesn’t End When the Account Opens. Five Steps Build the Relationship

Customers rarely announce that a relationship is ending. J.D. Power’s 2026 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study found that 20% of customers at the largest U.S. banks moved money away from their primary bank within the past three months, up from 17% a year earlier. The average customer now holds deposit accounts at three institutions. J.D. Power describes the pattern as “soft switching”: customers quietly open accounts elsewhere and shift funds gradually, so the relationship fades rather than having a single breaking point.

A first product is not a primary relationship. Any institution can measure the distance between the two, and the research that follows suggests the opportunity lies in the move from the first product to the second.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Our Vision is to become the leading

PAYDAY + ALTERNATIVE LENDER

in NORTH AMERICA

Don’t Delegate Your Bank’s Voice to AI. It Will Ruin Your Reputation

Consumers trust brands less when AI does the talking, yet a growing number of financial institutions are delegating their voice to AI, making AI-generated content both a reputation risk and a governance problem. Ironically, the sources AI trusts most in the financial area, from Investopedia to the Financial Times, won’t let AI write for them. Your bank shouldn’t either.

Key insight: AI is driving impressive efficiencies across financial services. But managing your institution’s reputation isn’t one of them.

I’ve spent more than 30 years protecting the reputations of global financial institutions and launching first-mover fintech companies. The companies that gained market share and momentum were deliberate about how they earned trust. They understood something their competitors didn’t: A great product still needs a believable story.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Americans’ Views of Economic Inequality, Its Causes and Who Should Fix It

Since 2019, a growing share among those who say there’s too much inequality think the economic system needs to be completely rebuilt to address it

About six-in-ten Americans (61%) say there is too much economic inequality in the United States, a view that is far more common among Democrats and Democratic leaners than Republicans and GOP leaners (78% vs. 42%).

These figures are unchanged from 2019. But some views about inequality and how to address it have shifted in that time.

Among those who say there is too much economic inequality in the U.S.:

35% now say no amount of economic inequality is acceptable, up from 29%.

24% now say the economic system needs to be completely rebuilt in order to address this inequality, up from 14%.

Read more at PEW Research

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E-Complish, LLC Launches: IntellAgent™, a 24/7

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What You Don’t Know About Next-Gen Consumers and Cards Can Hurt Account Retention and LTV

Banks and credit unions are investing heavily to win younger consumers, particularly as Gen Z enters adulthood and millennials move deeper into their prime borrowing and wealth-building years. But even if these consumers establish a checking account and set up direct deposit, they may still turn elsewhere for credit, savings, investing, and other financial needs.

In fact, younger consumers’ satisfaction with their financial institution does not necessarily translate into a broader or more durable relationship, according to a 2026 analysis by Deloitte. Such accountholders are increasingly comfortable assembling their financial lives across multiple providers and have a strong propensity to switch. Nearly 70% of millennials and Gen Z have authorized their banks to share data with other financial providers, the analysis said.

Read more at The Financial Brand

New Jersey Signals Aggressive Enforcement Against “Junk Fees”: What Businesses Need to Know

New Jersey is signaling a more aggressive approach to the regulation of so-called “junk fees.” In a recent enforcement statement issued by the New Jersey Attorney General and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, state regulators outlined how they intend to use the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act to address business practices involving fees that they consider deceptive, unconscionable, or abusive.

The enforcement statement was issued in conjunction with Governor Mikie Sherrill’s Executive Order No. 19, which directed state agencies to review and recommend measures to eliminate or reduce junk fees across a broad range of industries. Although the enforcement statement does not create new legal obligations, it provides important insight into how New Jersey regulators intend to interpret and enforce existing law. Businesses operating in New Jersey should pay close attention.

To explore the enforcement statement and its potential implications, Alan Kaplinsky (founder, former chair for 25 years and now Senior Counsel of the Consumer Financial Services Group) was joined on the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast by Beverly Brown Ruggia, Financial Justice Program Director at New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA).

Read more at Ballard Spahr LLP

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Who Sees Themselves as Working Class?

Most Americans think of themselves as “working class” today: Overall, 60% of U.S. adults say the term describes them well. And the identity is widely adopted by people across all income and educational groups – including half of both Americans who have a bachelor’s degree and those who are upper income.

Many Americans say ‘working class’ describes them well, but some are more likely than others to adopt the term

% of U.S. adults who say ‘working class’ describes them …

Working-class identification does vary by education and income: It is highest among Americans without a four-year degree and those who are middle income. But an analysis of data from a Pew Research Center survey conducted earlier this year finds that seeing oneself as working class also has a heavy political tinge and differs by race and ethnicity.

Read more at PEW Research

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