Payment Systems

Subscribe to Payment Systems via RSS

On June 24, 2025, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) published a Request for Information (“RFI”) to better understand how increasing consumer use of Buy Now Pay Later (“BNPL”) products impacts housing affordability and stability in connection with the residential loan programs insured by the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”). BNPL products, which allow consumers to purchase goods and services and repay over time (typically, though not always, through four or fewer deferred installments payable over six to eight weeks with no periodic interest or other finance charges), have continued to gain popularity over the past decade. To date, however, HUD has not incorporated consideration of BNPL products into underwriting guidelines for FHA-insured mortgage loans. With the RFI, HUD is seeking more information on whether it should develop policies to address potential ability-to-repay risks from these relatively new products.

Background on BNPL

While retail financing has a long history in the U.S., the concept of BNPL as a distinct class of product largely stems from the introduction of a “pay-in-4” product into the U.S. around 2018. This core element of the BNPL market involves the origination of unsecured, interest-free short-term installment loans to pay for relatively small-dollar retail purchases. Payments are usually due in four or fewer equal installments, with the first payment often due as a down payment at the time of sale. Subsequent payments are typically due every two weeks. Consumers enter into BNPL loans frequently through apps or purchase-and-origination flows managed by fintech BNPL providers. BNPL lenders may approve or deny a loan based on their own individual underwriting criteria, which may include reliance on a consumer report (often pulled as a soft pull to prequalify a consumer for a potential range of terms) and/or the consumer’s repayment history with the BNPL lender. BNPL lenders generally do not report repayment history or default to the consumer reporting agencies, although: (i) some lenders offer consumers the option to report positive repayment histories, and (ii) credit bureaus are planning to incorporate BNPL payments into credit scores and craft new categories to better match typical BNPL structures (as compared to reporting formats currently relevant for installment loans with monthly payments or traditional credit cards), each of which may increase adoption of BNPL credit reporting over time.Continue Reading HUD Requests Information on Buy Now Pay Later

On October 22, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) marked a significant milestone in the shift towards open banking in the United States with the finalization of its rulemaking on Personal Financial Data Rights. As we discussed in our Legal Update on the October 2023 proposed rule, the final rule provides the long-awaited implementation of Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, enacted in 2010, and establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework to provide consumers—and their authorized third parties—with rights to receive structured, consistent and timely access to consumers’ personal financial data held by financial institutions and other financial services providers.

The 594-page final rule is intended to allow consumers to access and share data held by banks, credit unions, credit card issuers, digital wallets, payment apps and other financial service providers, with the goal of improving customer choice and increasing competition, while strengthening consumer protections by imposing limitations on authorized third parties’ collection, use and retention of consumers’ data. Financial institutions subject to the final rule could face a variety of compliance, operational and technical challenges as they build out the infrastructure necessary to comply with the final rule. For the largest financial institutions, which include depository institutions with total assets in excess of $250 billion and non-depository institutions that generated at least $10 billion in total receipts in either calendar year 2023 or calendar year 2024, compliance is required by April 1, 2026, with compliance by smaller covered institutions required in phases beginning April 1, 2027, through April 1, 2030.Continue Reading CFPB Issues Long-Awaited Open Banking Rule; Lawsuit Immediately Filed

On March 5, the CFPB issued a final rule that would significantly reduce late fees that may be charged on consumer credit card accounts from $30 or more to $8 in most cases. A proposed rule on this subject matter was issued February 1, 2023, and the credit card industry has paid close attention to the rulemaking process since.

The final rule amends provisions of Regulation Z, implementing the Truth in Lending Act, related to permissible penalty fees—including late fees, NSF fees, returned payment fees, etc.— that a card issuer may impose on consumers who violate the terms of a credit card account subject to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (the “CARD Act”).Continue Reading CFPB Finalizes Significant Restrictions on Credit Card Late Fees

On January 20, 2022, the FTC continued its recent experiment in holding open meetings of its commissioners. The FTC did not vote on new initiatives; Chair Lina Khan is likely waiting for a third Democratic commissioner before pushing through her more controversial agenda. Public comments focused on two areas: possible anticompetitive conduct in the franchise…

Along with other federal agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently released its Fall 2019 regulatory agenda, announcing its intentions over the next several months to address the GSE QM Patch, HMDA, payday/small dollar loans, debt collection practices, PACE financing, business lending data, and remittances. Over the longer-term, the CFPB indicated it may even address feedback on the Loan Originator Compensation Rule under the Truth in Lending Act.

  • Qualified Mortgages. As we have previously described, the CFPB must in short order address the scheduled expiration of the temporary Qualified Mortgage status for loans eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (often referred to as the “Patch”). The Patch is set to expire on January 10, 2021, leaving little time to complete notice-and-comment rulemaking, particularly on such a complex and arguably controversial issue. The CFPB has indicated that it will not extend the Patch, but will seek an orderly transition (as opposed to a hard stop). The CFPB asked for initial public input over the summer, and announced that it intends to issue some type of statement or proposal in December 2019.
  • Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The CFPB intends to pursue several rulemakings to address which institutions must report home mortgage data, what data they must report, and what data the agency will make public. First, the CFPB announced previously that it was reconsidering various aspects of the 2015 major fortification/revamping of HMDA reporting (some – but not all – of which was mandated by the Dodd Frank Act). The CFPB announced its intention to address in one final rule (targeted for next month) its proposed two-year extension of the temporary threshold for collecting and reporting data on open-end lines of credit, and the partial exemption provisions for certain depository institutions that Congress recently enacted. The CFPB intends to issue a separate rule in March 2020 to address the proposed changes to the permanent thresholds for collecting and reporting data on open-end lines of credit and closed-end mortgage loans.

Continue Reading CFPB Announces its Fall 2019 Regulatory Agenda

The ABA Business Law Section is holding its 2018 Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas on September 13-15, 2018. The Meeting will offer over 80 CLE programs and many more committee meetings and events, and will feature several Mayer Brown panelists.

Financial Services Regulatory & Enforcement (FSRE) partner Laurence Platt will participate in a panel…

The NMLS Money Services Businesses (MSB) Call Report, described by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) as “a new tool within the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) that will streamline MSB reporting, improve compliance by the industry, and create the only comprehensive database of nationwide MSB transaction activity,” is now live in the NMLS, and the initial report is due May 15, 2017.

Since state regulators decided to transition the licensing of money services businesses on to the NMLS, they have been developing a more uniform report, which standardizes a number of definitions and the categorization of transactions, by which MSBs could report on their money service-related activities through the NMLS. Further, with the development and use of a more standardized MSB report, the need for MSBs to have additional tracking and reporting systems that can slice and dice transactions into each state’s unique buckets is reduced or eliminated.

Consequently, the new MSB Call Report was adopted by CSBS and released in NMLS on April 1, 2017. As a former Assistant Commissioner with the State of Maryland, I served on both the MSB Call Report Working Group and the NMLS Policy Committee (NMLSPC). The NMLSPC was responsible for recommending the approval of the Report, which was envisioned to operate along the lines of the Mortgage Call Report required of mortgage finance licenses, to CSBS.
Continue Reading Money Services Businesses Call Report Q1 Submission Deadline Quickly Approaching

On January 31, 2017, the CFPB released its Prepaid Rule Small Entity Compliance Guide to facilitate comprehension of and the implementation of the new prepaid rule on October 1, 2017. As described in our prior Legal Update, the CFPB issued the final prepaid rule in October 2016 which amends Regulation E to cover prepaid…

Financial services companies that hoped for immediate regulatory relief when the Trump Administration assumed control may have to wait a bit longer, because the newly announced freeze on federal regulations does not appear to apply across the board.  “Independent regulatory agencies,” such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) may be excluded from that moratorium.
Continue Reading How Solid is the “Freeze”? Some Agencies May Be Excluded from White House Regulatory Moratorium