State regulators

New York AG Letitia James is suing the earned wage access companies for charging illegal, high-interest loans that would have wide-ranging implications for EWA providers. DailyPay last week filed a countersuit against James's office.

The law would have expanded the state's 12% interest rate cap in a manner that would have effectively banned fintech lending in the state.

The state legislature has passed a bill that would remove exceptions to a 12% interest rate cap that would make many alternative forms of lending infeasible. It sits on the governor's desk, awaiting signature.

More state legislatures are exploring how to regulate earned wage access products, and interest rate caps are central to that discussion. New York state's pending legislation is taking a novel approach.

Amendments to New York's cyber rules — and a focus on privacy in California — mean banks must enhance risk controls, encryption and customer protections.

California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation is requiring registration by mid-February of debt settlement firms, earned wage access providers, private secondary education financing and student debt relief services.

The memorandum creates channels for sharing information about nonbanks between the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.

Nearly a dozen states are looking to regulate digital payroll advance products, prompting a fintech trade group to ask the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to conduct a formal rulemaking.

Brandon Milhorn, the new CEO of the Conference of State Banking Supervisors, used the platform offered by his first major speech to sound an alarm against one-size-fits-all solutions emanating from Washington. "The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of federal regulatory uniformity," Milhorn argued.

New York is seeking to procure a supercomputer to run artificial intelligence systems and gain a deeper understanding of the technology for more effective regulation.