In This Digest
- For debt collectors and BNPL companies, New York developments worth noting.
- For commercial lenders, what to expect with respect to state commercial finance disclosure laws.
- New NACHA risk management rules.
- What financial institutions should pay attention to regarding stablecoins and the use of AI.
- A new OCC supervisory appeals process.
- When federal enforcement risk and regulation steps back, shift to risk-based judgment.
Legal and Regulatory Developments
NYC's SHIELD Rule Reshapes Debt Collection Compliance—Original Creditors Now Squarely in Scope
New York City's newly finalized Stopping Harassment and Intimidation and Ensuring Lawful Debt (SHIELD) Collection Rule materially tightens debt-collection requirements in the nation's largest consumer market. This is not a technical adjustment to Regulation F. It is a structural compliance shift that expands dispute rights, caps communications at three per week across channels, and increases substantiation expectations—particularly for medical debt. The SHIELD Rule is effective September 1, 2026.
NYDFS Proposes Comprehensive Rules for Buy Now, Pay Later Lenders
New York is moving to establish a dedicated licensing and consumer-protection regime for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products. The New York legislature enacted the Buy Now Pay Later Act (Article 14-B of the New York Banking Law) in 2025, and the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has now published a proposed rule implementing that Act. The proposal is currently in a pre-proposal outreach phase.
State Commercial Financing Disclosure Laws: Recent Developments and Compliance Considerations
State regulation of commercial financing disclosures continues to expand and mature. Although legislative activity slowed in 2025 compared with prior years, a few states enacted or refined disclosure regimes. Continued enforcement activity underscores the need for ongoing compliance attention by providers and brokers operating across multiple jurisdictions.
How Appealing: OCC Appeals Process Proposal May Make It Easier for Banks to Challenge Exam Findings
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller used the central bank's inaugural Payments Innovation Conference on October 21 to propose a new "payment account," a streamlined alternative to a traditional master account that would offer limited access to Federal Reserve payment services.
Analysis and Commentary
AI in Financial Services: Popular Use Cases and the Regulatory Road Ahead
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the delivery of consumer financial services. Consumer finance companies—from traditional banks and loan servicers to emerging fintech companies—are using AI in increasingly sophisticated ways to optimize customer experience, speed up decision making, improve fraud detection, and ensure compliance with applicable laws.
Stablecoins: An Emerging Consideration for Merchants
As 2026 gets under way, the payments ecosystem continues to innovate and evolve. Payments companies face business pressure from numerous directions. Consumers expect fast, low-cost, and borderless payments, while merchants seek solutions that reduce friction and enhance financial control. At the same time, policymakers and supervisors are moving toward more defined expectations for stablecoin issuance and custody.
Nacha Risk Management Rules
Starting on March 20, 2026, new Nacha risk management rules ("Rules") go into effect that require originating and receiving entities, as well as service providers, to implement "risk-based processes and procedures" to detect fraudulent ACH entries, expanding a prior rule that regulated a limited subset of transactions. The Rules remove the existing "commercially reasonable" standard for fraud detection and instead state that procedures must be "relevant to the role" of the entity in the ACH transmission process.
When Regulation Steps Back, Judgment Steps Forward
Enforcement risk in consumer financial services has not diminished—it has dispersed across the FTC, state regulators, and private litigants, requiring a shift from rules-based compliance to risk-based judgment. This theme is explored in When Regulation Steps Back, Judgment Steps Forward, published February 26, 2026 in the Dow Jones Risk Journal.
Upcoming Events
ETA TRANSACT 2026
March 18 - 20, 2026 | Atlanta, GA
Venable is excited to once again sponsor ETA TRANSACT 2026. Attorneys with a variety of experience will be available to speak with you at our booth, #839, on the exhibit show floor.
A Cautionary Tale in Private Credit: Lessons Learned from First Brands
April 20, 2026 - 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. | Webinar
The First Brands matter has emerged as a significant case study in the evolving risk landscape of private credit. This webinar examines the factual backdrop of the alleged fraud, the breakdowns in collateral verification and monitoring, and the structural features of private lending that may allow misconduct to go undetected.
Nacha Faster Smarter Payments Conference 2026
April 26 - 29, 2026 | San Diego, CA
Venable is excited to once again sponsor the Nacha Smarter Faster Payments Conference. Attorneys with a variety of experience will be available to speak with you at our booth, #706, on the exhibit show floor.