U.S. Regulators Want More Control Oversight Into Apple Pay

The United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today proposed new oversight requirements for technology companies like Apple that offer digital wallets and payment apps.

apple pay feature dynamic island
According to the CFPB, payment services like Apple Pay are growing in popularity, but the companies behind them are not subject to the same "supervisory examinations" that banks undergo.

The newly proposed rule would require companies that handle more than five million transactions per year to adhere to the same rules as large banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions that are supervised by the CFPB.

The CFPB claims that there have been an increasing number of complaints about tech companies in the consumer finance market, and it argues that examiners should be able to carefully scrutinize the activities of tech companies to ensure they are following the law.

Big Tech and other companies operating in consumer finance markets blur the traditional lines that have separated banking and payments from commercial activities. The CFPB has found that this blurring can put consumers at risk, especially when the same traditional banking safeguards, like deposit insurance, may not apply.

Despite their impact on consumer finance, Big Tech and other nonbank companies operating in the payments sphere do not receive the same regulatory scrutiny and oversight as banks and credit unions. While the CFPB has enforcement authority over these companies, the CFPB has not previously had, inside many of these firms, examiners carefully scrutinizing their activities to ensure they are following the law and monitoring their executives.

The CFPB wants to be able to conduct examinations of tech companies to make sure that they are following funds transfer, privacy, and consumer protection laws, and adhering to the same rules that banks must follow. If finalized, the proposed rule would give the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau more oversight into the financial services provided by companies like Apple and Google.

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iphone 17 air dummy unbox therapy

iPhone 17 Air's Extreme Thinness Demoed in New Video

Tuesday April 22, 2025 10:22 am PDT by
Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be ...
ipad air windows 11 arm

M2 iPad Air Runs Windows 11 ARM via Emulation, Thanks to EU Rules

Tuesday April 22, 2025 5:01 am PDT by
A developer has demonstrated Windows 11 ARM running on an M2 iPad Air using emulation, which has become much easier since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect. As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev shared an instance of the emulation on social media and posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) demonstrating it in action. The achievement relies on new EU regulatory...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 18

iOS 18.5 Includes Only a Few Changes So Far

Monday April 21, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes. The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps. In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner. In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...
iphone 17 pro majin bu sky blue

iPhone 17 Pro Allegedly Coming in Sky Blue Color Used for MacBook Air

Tuesday April 22, 2025 4:08 am PDT by
Apple will unveil the iPhone 17 Pro in a new Sky Blue color, the same color that debuted on the latest M4 MacBook Air models Apple released in March. That's according to the leaker Majin Bu. Concept mockup from Majin Bu Writing on his website, Bu claims that "sources close to the supply chain confirm that several iPhone 17 Pro prototypes have been made in various colors, with Sky Blue...
maxresdefault

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:52 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and ...

Top Rated Comments

frenchcamp49er Avatar
19 months ago
Can we see the complaints or are they just made up.
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
19 months ago
I would like to see some examples of the consumer complaints about Apple Pay, the service when you use AW or iPhone at POS.
Don’t know what those could be
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mikebenton Avatar
19 months ago
Apparently folks can't tell the difference between a credit card, a savings account, and a payment processing platform. The article is related to the later and has absolutely nothing to do with the first two.

The complaints are likely coming from competing payment processing platforms, which may or may not be banks. I can tell you that if you process a swipe or tap transaction, you're likely paying between 2.5 - 3% in fees. With ApplePay, your fees are about 1% less....as it should be. There is likely to be much less fraud via ApplePay. I'm sure the lobbyists are hard at work. Whoever feels they are getting cut short by ApplePay is complaining.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bradman83 Avatar
19 months ago
There are clearly plenty of misunderstandings that need to be cleared up in these forums.

[LIST=1]
* Apple Pay is not the same thing as Apple's credit card. Apple's credit card and savings accounts are issued by Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs has nothing to do with Apple Pay other than enabling the credit cards they issued to be added to it.
* Apple Pay is a payment processing system run by Apple in conjunction with the major credit card processing platforms.
* Apple Cash is used to house rewards and P2P payments and is housed on a stored value card account issued by Green Dot Bank.
* Most importantly: The CFPB's actions are not specifically targeting Apple, but the entire FinTech industry - PayPal, Venmo, Square, etc. The goal here is to make sure the financial services offered by all of these companies follows the same rules as banks and are subject to similar examination/inspection requirements. If Apple is using reputable, already regulated partners to provide financial services to consumers then it will have a minimal impact on them.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
icanhazmac Avatar
19 months ago

Looking for something like this?

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/a-total-nightmare-transfer-delays-with-new-apple-goldman-savings-accounts-prompt-complaints
That isn't Apple Pay.

Goldman is a regulated bank sooooooo.....
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DaveN Avatar
19 months ago
Sounds reasonable.

==========
edit: as of Wed evening 11/8/23; like 29, disagree 10, love 2, haha 1
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)