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Senate votes to overturn CFPB big tech rule

Written on Mar 13, 2025

The Senate voted March 5 to overturn a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that gives the federal agency supervisory authority over big tech companies, like Google and Apple, that offer consumer payment tools. 

The rule was finalized by the agency in November under the direction of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.  

Republicans Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Mike Flood, both of Nebraska, introduced the bicameral CRA resolution to upend the CFPB rule. 

Republicans have been working to reverse what they view as undue regulatory pressures. On March 4, the CFPB also dropped a lawsuit the agency had filed last year against the payments tool operator Zelle and some of its bank backers. 

Tech trade groups had already been trying to knock down the CFPB’s rule on big tech supervision, with TechNet and NetChoice filing a lawsuit against the agency in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in January. There haven’t been any significant developments in the case so far, but the plaintiffs are egging on the congressional action. 

“The final rule’s one-size-fits-all approach fails to follow applicable law, [and] does not identify any specific consumer harm,” TechNet Executive Vice President Carl Holshouser said in press release from Ricketts. “Instead, the Bureau casts a wide net to turn itself into a general technology regulator instead of a financial one.” 

The rule gave the CFPB authority to supervise and examine nonbank technology companies that offer money transfer and digital wallet services, such as Cash App, Google Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal’s Venmo. It was necessitated partly by such tools having become commonplace, the agency said in finalizing the edict. 

“The rule will help to protect consumer privacy, guard against fraud, and prevent illegal account closures,” Chopra said at the time. 

Fraud perpetrated on such apps was highlighted in 2022 by a New York Times feature that suggested widespread fraud was happening on the Zelle payments app operated by bank-owned company Early Warning Services. Subsequently, Senate Democrats lambasted EWS last year over consumer losses related to fraud. 

Nonetheless, EWS pushed back, arguing that fraud on its system affected less than 1% of overall transactions, though it didn’t provide details.