The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to extend its watchdog powers to cover digital wallets and payment apps run by companies like Apple, Google, PayPal and Block, which do not have traditional banking operations.
The bureau proposed a rule on Tuesday that would subject large companies — those that process more than five million financial transactions per year — to the same supervisory examinations the bureau conducts on banks and credit unions.
“Payment systems are critical infrastructure for our economy,” said Rohit Chopra, the bureau’s director.
“Today’s rule would crack down on one avenue for regulatory arbitrage by ensuring large technology firms and other nonbank payments companies are subjected to appropriate oversight.”The proposed rule could take effect as soon as next year.
One of the payment industry’s largest trade groups, the Electronic Transactions Association, had a fairly mild response to the proposal.
Persons:
”, Rohit Chopra, “
Organizations:
Consumer Financial, Apple, Google, PayPal, Electronic Transactions
Locations:
United States