Welcome to the March 2025 Innovating Payments Executive Summary. In this month’s issue, the Senate Banking Committee has advanced Jonathan McKernan's nomination to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with a narrow 13-11 party-line vote. President Trump signed an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the U.S. ICBA and community banks endorsed Secretary Bessent’s support for Main Street banks and opposition to regulator consolidation.
In other news, the U.S. Faster Payments Council released a report on how digital assets and ledger technology can advance financial inclusion. Additionally, the Association of Financial Professionals® (AFP) released its 2025 Benchmarking Survey, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System released its payments study.
Read on to learn more.
Top News Headlines
McKernan CFPB Nod Advances to Full Senate
The Senate Banking Committee has advanced Jonathan McKernan's nomination to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with a narrow 13-11 party-line vote. McKernan, a former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board member, now awaits a full Senate vote, requiring at least 50 votes for confirmation. If confirmed, he will succeed Acting Director Russ Vought as the head of the CFPB.
“Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, the panel’s chair, cautioned that Thursday’s committee vote ‘is not just a formality; it’s a commitment to putting our nation back on track after years of uncertainty and stagnation,’” reported The Banking Dive. “A vote to put McKernan atop the CFPB, Scott said, would ‘ensure accountability and much-needed reforms to curtail the weaponization of this rogue agency.’”
Republicans have long criticized the CFPB for its strict enforcement. Under Rohit Chopra, the bureau pursued lawsuits against major firms and introduced regulations on open banking, overdraft fees, and oversight of big tech. However, the bureau has taken a different direction under Vought's leadership. It has withdrawn lawsuits against Capital One and Zelle, faced legal challenges to its overdraft fee rule, and seen lawmakers push to repeal its big-tech oversight regulation.
For more on this story, visit The Banking Dive.
U.S. CFPB Drops “Zelle” Case Against JPMorgan, BofA, Wells Fargo
According to a court filing, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was dropping a lawsuit against JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo over their handling of the payment services Zelle, reported Reuters. The CFPB had accused them of failing to protect consumers from fraud that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
“In an unprecedented move, the CFPB has now dropped seven of the enforcement cases brought under former President Joe Biden, including one against Capital One,” the news outlet reported. “Many of the other pending cases have been paused in court.”
You can read the full story here.
Trump Signs Executive Order Establishing U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday (March 6) creating a strategic bitcoin reserve, marking a major shift in U.S. digital asset policy,” reported CNBC.
Other key points emphasized by CNBC:
- White House Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks said the reserve will be funded exclusively with bitcoin seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases, ensuring taxpayers bear no financial burden.
- The order also establishes a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, managed by the Treasury Department, to hold other confiscated cryptocurrencies.
Click here to read the whole story.
ICBA
According to a news release, the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has praised Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for his statements supporting community banks and his commitment to maintaining the independence of the nation’s prudential banking regulators and dual banking system.
“ICBA and the nation’s community banks strongly support Secretary Bessent’s remarks on the positive role of community banks to Main Street communities and ruling out consolidation of prudential banking regulators,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in the release. “Community banks are strong advocates for streamlining federal banking regulations and building efficiencies, and any structural reforms should focus on promoting agency accountability and ensuring regulatory oversight is tiered and risk weighted.”
You can click here to read the full news release.
U.S. Faster Payments Council
The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) has published a report titled Digital Assets and Digital Ledger Technology: A Pathway to Financial Inclusiveness. Developed by the FPC Financial Inclusion Work Group and Digital Assets Work Group, with sponsorship from ACI Worldwide, the report explores how digital assets and digital ledger technology (DLT) can reduce financial exclusion and enhance access to essential services.
Anthony Serio, Chair of the Financial Inclusion Work Group, emphasized the report's goal of fostering understanding, informed discussions, and strategic efforts to promote financial inclusivity by examining DLT's benefits, challenges, and potential.
Key highlights of the report include:
- Strategies for designing accessible and inclusive financial products
- The role of digital assets in enhancing liquidity and enabling low-cost transactions
- Solutions for cash-in/cash-out access to support real-world usability
- The importance of interoperability and trust-building within digital financial services
You can download the report in its entirety here.
2025 AFP Treasury Benchmarking Survey Report
“The 2025 AFP® Treasury Benchmarking Survey, underwritten by Wells Fargo, reports that while 96% of treasury professionals report that communication is a critical skill for treasury leadership, 81% believe that their treasury leaders are effective at communication,” according to the AFP website. “Over 500 treasury practitioners participated in this survey and their responses form the basis of this report. This survey was last conducted in 2013.”
Also highlighted by AFP:
- Nearly three-quarters of treasury practitioners cite cash management and forecasting as the top priorities of their department. This holds true regardless of level of seniority.
- Over 60% of treasury professionals identify cash or liquidity forecasting as their most challenging task. Treasury departments at the highest end of the treasury maturity spectrum, described as "strategic/optimized,” utilize automation for over half of the process of creating liquidity forecasts.
- More than 60% of senior management in strategic and optimized organizations and 62% of senior management in mid-level organizations on the maturity spectrum express a willingness to adopt new technologies.
- Non-members can download highlights from the report here.
National Payment Volumes, Detailed Data—ACH, Checks, Wires, and Alternative Payments
This month, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System released its payments study. The report contains national estimates of the number and value of transaction accounts, checks, automated clearinghouse (ACH) transfers, and wire transfers in the United States for 2015, 2018, and 2021. It also includes estimates of certain alternative payments, specifically bill payments and person-to-person (P2P) payments initiated at depository institution-sponsored websites and apps.
Key highlights, excerpted from the site, include:
- The total number of all (commercial and U.S. Treasury) ACH transfers grew substantially faster from 2018 to 2021 than in the previous three-year period (8.2 versus 4.8 percent per year) and reached 34.2 billion in 2021.
- From 2018 to 2021, commercial (non-U.S. Treasury) wire transfers originated from accounts domiciled in the United States grew by double digits annually in number and value, reaching 387.7 million transactions and $1,441.09 trillion in 2021.
- P2P transfers continued to grow rapidly, increasing 51.0 percent by number and 43.0 percent by value per year from 2018 to 2021.
Click here to download key findings from the report.
NEACH
If you’ve not yet registered, now is a great time to sign up for NEACH’s 2025 Payments Management Conference, May 19 – 20, at the Foxwoods Resort Casino. Join countless payments professionals at every level as they gather for a one-of-a-kind conference filled with education, networking, and opportunity.
Click here to register for the conference.
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AUTHOR: Joe Casali, AAP, NCP
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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