Payments

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has significantly raised the transaction threshold for its larger participant rule — which defines which firms will be affected — from 5 million annual payments to 50 million.

The Federal Reserve chair said Fed researchers continue to explore central bank digital currencies to stay current on international payments developments, but emphatically denied that the central bank is considering creating one of its own.

Investment banking fees shot up at the nation's largest bank, thanks to rebounds in M&A and the equity capital markets segment. And despite higher credit costs in the company's card business, a top bank executive expressed confidence in the health of U.S. consumers.

A proposal from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to extend the same protections as credit cards to the fast-growing BNPL industry aims to protect consumers, but it could also stunt the nascent industry's growth, experts say.

The retail giant has scrapped its credit card partnership with Capital One, its second public spat in recent years with a partner bank. Analysts say it may be a sign that Walmart wants to launch its own credit card on what it hopes will be a financial super-app.

The number of borrowers who are at their credit limits is approaching its pre-pandemic level, and the percentage of balances that are sliding into delinquency has hit its highest rate in more than a decade, according to new research. Still, card companies are generally expressing optimism about their credit outlooks.

Max Levchin, CEO of the buy now/pay later lender, said recent tests show young adults prefer interacting with intelligent chatbots over phone-based agents, but the company doesn't foresee major cost savings from generative AI for a few more years.

Net charge-offs at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank increased by more than 80% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier. BofA executives say that the rising losses were in line with the bank's risk appetite.

The blockbuster merger proposal will be reviewed at a time when the Biden administration is expressing skepticism about consolidation. Its analysis will have to account for markets dominated by both big banks and the likes of Visa and Mastercard.

Payments fraud is the most expensive kind, at $450B; anti-financial-crime execs are the most worried about real-time payments, a survey from Nasdaq and Oliver Wyman found.

Too few lenders are underwriting unsecured consumer debt, which could help borrowers pay down credit card balances with little risk to lenders.

As U.S. credit card balances continue to march above $1 trillion, the number of newly delinquent credit card users now exceeds the pre-pandemic average and millennials and those with student or auto loans are driving the increase in past-due payments, the New York Fed said.

As the holiday shopping season approaches, late payments on credit cards have surpassed their pre-pandemic levels, according to a new VantageScore report. The consumers showing signs of deterioration include not only subprime borrowers, but also those with prime credit scores.

The servicer said it entered into the consent order "without admitting any wrongdoing, to avoid the expense and distraction of litigation."

Adjusted for inflation, consumer spending has largely stalled after surging at the start of the year. Delinquency rates, meanwhile, are ticking up. 

The list of 57 early adopters includes large banks like BNY Mellon, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, as well as large bank technology companies including Jack Henry, FIS and Fiserv.

Rising interest rates on loans, greater borrowing and higher fees on deposit accounts all contributed to the increase. "Altogether, this paints a picture of debt that could really start to strain the checkbooks of American families," said Meghan Greene, a researcher at the nonprofit organization that authored the report.

In its ongoing quest to diversify beyond bank account data-aggregation, Plaid aims to help fintechs and banks to block fraud by sharing data about stolen consumer identities via a fee-based consortium called Beacon.

The bank is working with The Clearing House and real estate tech company EMTransfer and is hoping to cut paper and time from the process of selling property.

Balances reached nearly $1 trillion at the end of the first quarter, up 17% from a year earlier. The increase reflects higher spending by well-off consumers on travel and entertainment, as well as the pressure that lower-income households are facing from inflation and higher interest rates.