CFPB MOVES TO POLICE SILICON VALLEY: “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to extend its watchdog powers to cover digital wallets and payment apps run by companies like Apple, Google, PayPal and Block, which do not have traditional banking operations,” per The New York Times’ Stacy Cowley. — “The bureau proposed a rule on Tuesday that would subject large companies — those that process more than five million financial transactions per year — to the same supervisory examinations the bureau conducts on banks and credit unions. About 17 companies, which together handle $13 billion in transactions a year and hold an 88 percent share of the market in the United States, would be subject to the rule, according to a bureau official.” — The rule marks a win for traditional banks, which “have long pressed for nonbank companies to face the same kind of audits and oversight that banks do. Lindsey Johnson, the chief executive of the Consumer Bankers Association, called the proposed rule ‘a step in the right direction.’” — But at least one tech trade group panned the new rule. “Rather than trying to make fintech services work like banks, the CFPB should be working to make banks as accessible as fintech,” Janay Eyo, the director of financial policy at the Chamber of Progress, said in a statement, asserting the proposal is “more about giving Wall Street a foot up than protecting consumers.” DURBIN’S LATEST SWIPE: With their bill aimed at diluting Visa and Mastercard’s dominance of the credit card industry stalled, supporters of cracking down on the interchange fees paid by retailers for card transactions are taking another dig at their opponents by demanding data on how much the federal government is paying in swipe fees. — “The amount of interchange fees paid by the federal government has far-reaching implications for taxpayers,” Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Reps. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) and Del. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-Northern Mariana Islands) wrote in a letter today to U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, pointing to estimates of $240 million in swipe fees per year. — “That translates to a taxpayer subsidy of over $1,000,000,000 to Visa and Mastercard over a five-year period,” the lawmakers argued. They also cited a 2008 GAO that found card “networks rarely accommodate requests from federal entities to lower the exorbitant cost of interchange fees paid by taxpayers. … If the United States government cannot effectively negotiate a lower interchange rate, how can we expect small businesses nationwide to have a fair shot?” — The letter, which was first reported by Punchbowl News, comes a week after Durbin and Marshall took aim at a different set of critics of their swipe fees bill: Airlines who’ve said their frequent flier and rewards programs could be gutted by legislation to lower swipe fees. MAKING A LIST: The Small Business Roundtable is teaming with Amazon, which has frequently deployed its small sellers in Washington, for a small business holiday expo on the Hill today. The event in the Rayburn House Office Building will feature small business owners who will talk up their experiences with e-commerce platforms and provide lawmakers, staffers and passersby tips on supporting small businesses while shopping online, especially with the holidays coming up, per the Roundtable. PHILLIPS FINANCIERS WARY OF WHITE HOUSE BID: “Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. is seeing little support for his longshot primary bid against President Joe Biden from a group of power brokers in his home state who have donated to his past successful runs for Congress,” people familiar with the matter told CNBC’s Brian Schwartz. — “Phillips, a businessman who first got elected in 2018 to the House of Representatives, has been asked by a few of his previous financial backers to return their donations or demand he won’t use those funds for his presidential campaign.” — “Others have decided not to help Phillips run for president but have not gone as far demanding their money gets returned. These former boosters explained to CNBC that they support Biden and are not in favor of the Minnesota congressman’s primary bid.” — “Phillips will need to raise millions of dollars if he’s going to have any chance of raising his national profile against an incumbent president. He will likely have to look outside the group of donors from Minnesota who have helped him win three congressional races, according to Ken Martin, the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is supporting Biden’s candidacy. … ‘I haven’t heard from one donor that thinks this is a good idea,’ Martin said. ‘I don’t talk to all of his donors, but I talk to a lot of donors.’” SPOTTED at a reception last night sponsored by EMILY’s List, the Service Employees International Union, ActBlue, the American Federation of Teachers, America Votes, the National Education Association, Reproductive Freedom for All, SMART Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, per a tipster: Joyce Brayboy of Goldman Sachs, Paul Brathwaite of Federal Street Strategies, Aquila Powell of Prime Policy Group, Dalen Harris of SEIU and Mona Mohib of McGuireWoods.
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