Welcome to Innovating Payments: Top 3 News Headlines for the week of March 3, 2025. This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) officially dropped its lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo regarding allegations of fraud on the Zelle payment platform. Meanwhile, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has proposed rolling back a policy that increased oversight of large bank mergers, which could significantly impact the banking landscape. In other news, the cryptocurrency market rallied after President Trump announced the creation of a strategic national crypto reserve.
Read on to learn more.
1. CFPB drops lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo over Zelle fraud (CNBC)
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday dismissed its lawsuit against the operator of the Zelle payments network and the three U.S. banks that dominate transactions on it. The CFPB sued Early Warning Services, which runs the peer-to-peer payments network, as well as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo in December, alleging that the firms failed to properly investigate fraud complaints or give victims reimbursement. (Read more.)
2. FDIC Wants to Lessen Scrutiny Into Banking Mega-Mergers (PYMNTS.com)
The FDIC wants to roll back a policy that had increased oversight into large bank mergers. The proposal unveiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Monday (March 3) would rescind the group's 2024 Statement of Policy on Bank Merger Transactions, replacing it - for the time being - with an earlier merger rule amid a wider examination of the merger review process. "The proposal approved today seeks to address concerns that the 2024 Statement added considerable uncertainty to the merger application process," the regulator said. (Read more.)
3. Trump Names Coins in Strategic Crypto Reserve (Payments Dive)
The cryptocurrency market rallied Sunday after President Donald Trump announced the creation of a strategic national crypto reserve on social media platform Truth Social, which he owns. The reserve is set to include bitcoin, ether, Ripple's XRP, Solana's SOL and Cardano's ADA, he wrote. It will "elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration" as Trump focuses on "mak[ing] sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World." (Read more.)
What downstream implications could the CFPB's decision to drop the lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo regarding alleged Zelle fraud have for the financial services industry? How could a choice by the FDIC to reduce scrutiny of banking mega-mergers impact the industry overall? What impact could the Trump administration's heightened emphasis on crypto have on financial institutions?
Check back soon for our next issue, highlighting the industry's most pressing and important developments. Until then, visit us online at Innovating Payments.
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AUTHOR: Joe Casali, AAP, AFPP, APRP
Executive Vice President
As the EVP of Payments Innovation for NEACH, Joe focuses on exploring innovative solutions and technologies that will help position members for success, both now and in the future. Connect with Joe to read more of his blogs, articles, and posts.
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