ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION | |
edition: January 23, 2025 | |
Will Trump kill the CFPB? The bureau’s future is unclear under the new administration
As the Trump administration prepared to take power in Washington, D.C., the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) wasted no time. In the two months leading up to the inauguration, the bureau sued some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies: Capital One, Experian, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, among others, alleging that they cheated, deceived, or failed to protect American consumers.
The CFPB has vigorously pursued a mission to return billions of dollars to consumers from junk fees and fraud. Since the bureau’s founding in 2011, it has provided over $21 billion in consumer relief, including monetary compensation and canceled debts, to an estimated 205 million consumers and consumer accounts.
However, not everyone is a fan of the CFPB’s work.
“Delete CFPB,” wrote Elon Musk on X in late November. “There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.” While a billionaire complaining about the CFPB is nothing new, Musk is set to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with restructuring the federal government by reducing expenditures and bureaucracy.
Read more at FORTUNE
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Who Remains Unbanked in the United States and Why?
WP 25-02 – This paper conducts a detailed exploration of the factors associated with unbanked status among U.S. households and how these relationships evolved between 2015 and 2019.
Biennial FDIC household survey data on bank account ownership and household characteristics, combined with state-level variables, are examined with application of both fixed effects and multilevel modeling. The analysis finds that even as rising incomes drove a decline in the unbanked percentage of the population over this period, income remained the most significant differentiator, with strong associations with race and ethnicity also persisting. Unbanked status became more concentrated among single individuals and disabled individuals and less concentrated among younger households over this period, and less strongly related to unemployment spells. New factors identified by the analysis include lack of digital access and non-citizen immigrant status, both associated with significantly higher likelihood of being unbanked. Identified state-level relationships include an association between financial literacy measures and percent unbanked. Overall, the findings suggest that continuation of recent efforts by policymakers to bridge the digital divide in rural and urban areas and to enhance financial literacy could help expand financial inclusion. Another key takeaway is that unknown structural factors still pose a challenge to explaining who is unbanked, especially regarding gaps by race and ethnicity, underscoring a need to capture more granular data on the unbanked.
Read more at Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
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5 Key Demographic Trends for Bank Marketers to Watch in 2025
As millennials and Gen Z enter their prime earning years, building early connections can establish banks and credit unions as trusted partners for their evolving financial needs — from investing to saving and beyond. Here are the key demographic trends financial institutions should keep on their radar.
As we step into the new year, demographic trends long on bankers’ radar are set to accelerate, reshaping the financial landscape. From a monumental generational wealth transfer to renewed interest in in-person banking, here’s what experts say marketers at financial institutions need to know to stay ahead in 2025.
‘The Great Wealth Transfer’ Remains Top of Mind
Younger men and women are poised to become significantly wealthier. Over the next two decades, an estimated $80 trillion will transfer between generations as older individuals pass down wealth to their heirs. Millennial and Generation Z women are expected to reap substantial benefits from this shift.
Read more at The Financial Brand
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Leveraging Social Media for Insurance and Finance
Financial services marketing expert Dr. Robin Kiera reveals how banks and insurers can harness social media and behavioral economics to create compelling content, build customer relationships and drive sales in the digital age.
Financial services marketing is undergoing a profound transformation in today’s digital age. Traditional strategies are losing their effectiveness as consumers increasingly turn to social media for information, entertainment and engagement. To shed light on this shift and provide actionable insights for financial marketers, Jim Marous of The Financial Brand sat down with Dr. Robin Kiera, a renowned expert in the field and author of the new book "Attention Hacking: The Power of Social Media Selling in Insurance and Finance."
With years of experience working in both insurance and banking, Kiera has become a thought leader and influencer in his own right, amassing a substantial following across platforms like
Read more at The Financial Brand
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72% of Workers Prefer Instant Payroll If Given Choice
As criticism of traditional biweekly and monthly payroll systems increases, workers in gig, freelance and contract roles are more vocal about the financial strain caused by delayed payments.
This has sparked a demand for instant payroll, changing how employees manage their finances and engage with employers.
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Pay Without Delay: How Faster Payroll Improves Employee-Employer Relationships” explored the frustrations with legacy systems and the advantages of instant payments and how they can benefit workers and employers.
The delay in receiving earnings is an ongoing issue for many workers, as it creates financial hardship.
Read more at PYMNTS.COM
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U.S. homelessness rises 18% amid affordable housing shortage
Families with children saw the largest increase in homelessness this year, according to an annual report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Homelessness rose 18% in the U.S. this year as the affordable housing crisis, inflation, stagnant wages and natural disasters pummeled communities across the country, federal officials said Friday.
More than 771,000 people — or about 23 of every 10,000 — experienced homelessness when the national count was conducted in January, according to an annual report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Read more at NBC NEWS
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Survey: 42% of Americans Don't Have an Emergency Fund
Two in five Americans – and nearly half of women – don't have an emergency fund, according to a U.S. News survey.
Conventional wisdom dictates that consumers should have an emergency fund with enough money to cover three to six months' worth of living expenses – but in reality, 42% of Americans don't have an emergency fund at all, according to a U.S. News survey.
Between Jan. 8 and 15, 2025, U.S. News ran a nationwide survey of 1,207 Americans, conducted through PureSpectrum. We asked respondents questions about their financial well-being, including if they have an emergency savings fund, how they might handle an unexpected expense and whether they have any financial goals for 2025. Here's what we found:
Two in five Americans (42%) don't have an emergency savings fund. Nearly as many (40%) couldn't cover a $1,000 emergency expense with cash or savings, though 60% said they'd had an unexpected expense pop up in the past year.
Read more at US NEWS
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America's top consumer watchdog faces uncertain future as some Trump allies call to 'delete' the CFPB
When Elon Musk declared in November that it was time to “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he threw a bright new spotlight on an agency long loathed by Republicans.
Would Donald Trump really try to dismantle the watchdog? Or would his administration simply nudge it in a more conservative direction?
Those questions are still lingering as Trump prepares to take office, largely because he has yet to nominate a new leader for the CFPB. Whom he taps could signal just how dramatically the White House wants to scale back the bureau’s reach.
Shuttering the CFPB outright almost certainly isn’t on the table, since such a move would require an act of Congress. Nor is starving it of cash; the agency is funded independently through the Federal Reserve system, where it’s housed — an arrangement the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional last year.
Read more at MSN.COM
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How To Make Sense of Tech Making Nice with Trump
As Donald Trump begins his second term, tech leaders are lining up to get on his good side.
Most US tech industry employees continue to vote Democratic, even as some of its most prominent leaders are making pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago and are donating millions to Trump’s inaugural fund. How did we get here? Like much of our present moment, it all goes back to 2015, when Trump descended an escalator and declared his campaign for president.
Trump’s surprising victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 sent Democrats into a tailspin. Democratic politicians responded to the party’s defeat by turning against the tech industry and pinning society’s problems on corporate greed. While scapegoating private industry generated effective soundbites, it ignored the reality that tech drives forward US economic growth.
Read more at Center for European Policy Analysis
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ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION | |
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