Debanking ban

 

Building on his commitment to address debanking, Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.), is leading his fellow Banking Committee Republicans in introducing legislation to curtail the weaponization of federal banking agencies by eliminating the ability for regulators to use reputational risk as a component of supervision. Chairman Scott’s Financial Integrity and Regulation Management Act will eliminate all references to reputational risk as a measure to determine the safety and soundness of regulated financial institutions.

  Senate.gov

Weaponization? Sounds like a very sound reason to assess risk to me. Trump's financial and business reputation has kept most banks from dealing with him.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday moved to allow payment apps like Venmo and PayPal to return to ideological debanking—repealing a rule implemented in December by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The rule also required the apps to create a smooth process for dispute resolution when fraudulent activity occurs. Repeal of the rule would leave users of the apps in limbo, as the laws protecting consumers would still be in place, but the rule enforcing the law—and the bureau with the capacity to enforce it—would not.

The vote on Wednesday afternoon won the support of every Senate Republican who voted, with the exception of Josh Hawley of Missouri, who has regularly broken with his party in support of populist economic policies. The resolution to repeal the rule did not require the typical 60 votes to move forward, meaning Republicans could repeal the debanking rule with just 51 votes and without needing Democratic support.

In order for the repeal to go into effect, the House also has to pass a companion measure, HJ Resolution 64, sponsored by Republican Rep. Mike Flood. With Democrats in opposition to repeal, only a handful of Republicans would need to vote no to block the effort.

  Dropsite

Do not hold your breath. Or even bother to hope.

The CFPB rule, which took years to implement due to Wall Street opposition, covers any nonbank financial institution that sees at least 50 million transactions annually and is not a small business. In other words, simply accepting payment for a service would not trigger the rule, but if the app allows money to move from one party to another—as is the case with Google Pay, Apple Pay, Zelle, and others—then the app would be required to follow the relevant laws. The company formerly known as Twitter would be covered if it added such a service, as owner Elon Musk has signaled it intends to do. The same is the case with WhatsApp, which has similarly discussed allowing users to make such transactions. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Musk—who doubles as a White House employee—fought hard for the elimination of the CFPB.

[...]

Sen. John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, said that he supported repeal of the rule because the CFPB had pushed its authority too far. Asked if he was worried that conservatives could be debanked as a result, he said he wasn’t sure. “I guess I'm not familiar enough with that to know to answer,” he said, an hour before the vote.

[...]

Rep. Rick Scott, who oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in American history before becoming a senator from Florida, said he would support final passage of the repeal. “I support it,” he said. “I think it makes sense. I’ve gone through each of these. We’ve got to continue to look at all these regulations.”

Asked if he was worried conservatives would be debanked, he said, “I don’t think they will be.”

Well, not the ones in power anyway.

There will be no consumer protections in Trump's America.

The Senate has voted to overturn key regulations that granted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau supervision over payment services operated by platforms such as PayPal, Google, and Apple.

The largely party-line 51-47 vote on Wednesday is part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to defang the CFPB, an agency created through the landmark Dodd-Frank financial reform of 2010 and championed by progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was the only Republican joining Democrats in opposing the resolution.

  MSN

Hard to believe Josh Hawley was on the right side of an issue. He's normally on the far right side.

While the legislation must still go through the House for a vote, its passage in the Senate is a key step towards reversing the Biden-era rule, which was finalized in November.