Senate Blocks Payment App Regulation & Amex Acquires Center

Welcome to Today in Payments.
I’m your host, Patti Murphy, here with your daily dose of payments notes.

Senate Votes to Overturn CFPB Rule on P2P Payment Apps

Well, it’s official. The Senate has approved a resolution that would nullify the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule granting it oversight authority for non-banks offering peer-to-peer (P2P) digital payment apps.

As I reported here yesterday, the rule was intended to apply to big tech companies processing at least 50 million P2P transactions annually. Those firms—most notably PayPal, Cash App, Apple Pay, and Google Pay—would have been subject to CFPB oversight if found to be violating consumer protection laws.

A similar resolution still needs approval in the House. But once that happens, the CFPB rule will effectively be dead in the water.

The rule had been hotly contested. In January, two industry associations representing Big Tech filed a lawsuit against the CFPB, arguing that the agency had overstepped its authority by adopting the rule. Around the same time, President Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s director, leaving much of the bureau’s work in limbo.

However, since the rule took effect before these events unfolded, a congressional resolution or legislation was necessary to overturn it.

American Express Acquires Center for Expense Management

In other payments news, American Express has announced its acquisition of Center, an expense management software company.

Center’s software, combined with American Express’ corporate and small business cards, aims to create a seamless expense management platform—one that enhances the entire commercial card payments process. According to an Amex press release, the platform will offer premium card choices, rewards, automated accounting, and reconciliation.

Center’s software is designed to remove friction from the expense management process. It provides businesses with real-time visibility into employee spending, automates manual accounting tasks, streamlines expense submissions and reporting, and equips finance teams with tools and insights to optimize decision-making.

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.

President Trump Establishes Government Cryptocurrency Reserve

In yet another development, President Trump signed an executive order yesterday establishing a government Cryptocurrency Reserve.

The reserve consists of approximately 200,000 bitcoin, collected as assets seized in federal criminal and civil proceedings. According to David Sacks, the President’s Crypto Czar, the government will not sell the cryptocurrency but will retain it as a store of value. Sacks likened the reserve to a digital “Fort Knox.”

Merchants Payments Coalition Pushes for Credit Card Reform

And here’s something for the books—perhaps even a book of jokes. No, not really, I’m just joking.

The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC), a vocal opponent of interchange fees, just issued a press release with a headline asserting that so-called “swipe fees” are “worse than what OPEC does.”

The purpose of the press release was to urge Congress to pass the Credit Card Competition Act. The bill, originally introduced in the last Congress by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS), would require credit card issuers with at least $100 million in assets (i.e., all major card issuers) to enable card transactions to be processed over at least two non-affiliated networks—only one of which could be owned by Visa or Mastercard. The goal is to provide merchants with more options for processing transactions.

MPC quoted Laura Lee Blake, president and CEO of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, who criticized the credit card brands’ increasing fees. “Frankly,” she said, “their behavior is worse than what OPEC does with oil prices.” Blake’s comments appeared in a letter to the House and Senate urging the passage of the Credit Card Competition Act.

While no such legislation has been introduced in the current session, Senators Durbin and Marshall are reportedly working on a similar bill, and another version is in the works in the House of Representatives.

Signing Off

Well, that’s it for today. Thanks for tuning in to Today in Payments. Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to check back for your daily dose of payments news!