Financial Services Regulation in 2025: More of the Same or Radical Shift?

This year was marked by a steady drumbeat of regulations and rules — and requests from regulators for information and comments from financial services players — touching on everything from credit card late fees to data sharing.

But 2025 seems more like a wild card. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration appears set to follow a course of deregulation, and there’s speculation that entire regulator bodies might be shut down, which would indeed be a radical shift.

In the meantime, however, the underlying issues are still there, and key among them will be examinations of the risks and rewards inherent in bank-FinTech partnerships, cybersecurity, capital requirements and innovation.

The Intersection of FIs and FinTechs

The Synapse bankruptcy and the shockwaves it sent as tens of thousands of customers could not access their funds — and where “following the money” is still a work in progress — will continue to have ripple effects in 2025. One trend that will last into the next several months will be how the partnerships are set up and how record-keeping may be redefined. A trio of federal bank regulatory agencies said in July that they are considering “additional steps” to ensure banks effectively manage risks associated with bank-FinTech arrangements.

Following the Money

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also sent out a separate request for information focused on a broad range of bank-FinTech arrangements, including those having to do with deposits, payments and lending products and services. A separate FDIC proposed rule would require FDIC-insured banks holding certain custodial accounts to ensure accurate records are kept determining the individual owner of the funds and to reconcile the account for each owner daily when those accounts are placed in banks by third parties (including FinTechs).

Consumers, Fees and BNPL

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has long been in the crosshairs of Congressional Republicans (and political gadfly Elon Musk), and there may be changes to the agency when Trump takes office. The CFPB has been notable for a flurry of rulemaking and announcements. Most recently, the sweeping scope of open banking rules — governing data sharing through API — is being extended to payment apps and data brokers, and banks are banned from charging for that data access.

Separately, the CFPB unveiled a new rule this month, set to take effect Oct. 1, 2025, that would cap overdraft fees at about $5 for banks and credit unions with assets exceeding $10 billion. Many of the CFPB’s actions have been — and are still being — challenged in court.

The CFPB has also taken aim at buy now, pay later payments in a move to push the providers to abide by the same disclosure rules as credit card companies, which is also drawing its share of legal jousting.

A lawsuit from trade associations contends that “the new rule is arbitrary and capricious because it fails to consider how its new disclosure obligations are ill-fitted for BNPL products, demonstrating that the CFPB fails to consider and address important aspects of how BNPL products function on the ground.”

It remains to be seen, too, what will become of the Credit Card Competition Act in the hands of a Republican-controlled Congress, with relatively healthy majorities in the Senate but a razor-thin edge in the House. The act seems to move Visa and Mastercard to lower interchange and network fees compared with alternative networks that must also be made available to merchants.

For now, time will tell.