The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interpretive rule stating that the Fair Credit Reporting Act preempts state laws that prohibit the listing of medical debt on consumer credit reports. The new guidance calls for courts to strike down such state-level bans "consistent with Congress's intent to create national standards for the credit reporting system."

Mastercard and PayPal are expanding their partnership to integrate the card network's agentic-AI payments program, Agent Pay, with the PayPal-branded digital wallet. The companies announced a pilot to test the agentic e-commerce system with merchants and AI agents. "Hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of millions of merchants globally will be able to participate in agentic commerce experiences, including the millions of Mastercard cards on file across the PayPal platform and the company's co-branded credit and debit cards," the companies said.

Barclays announced the planned acquisition of personal loan originator Best Egg for $800 million to help the British bank scale its personal banking operations in the US, where it faces stiff competition from larger domestic banks. The move is part of British lenders' broader trend of pursuing acquisitions after strong financial results. Barclays expects the transaction will close in the second quarter of next year, once the sale of its American Airlines co-branded credit card receivables is complete.

Citigroup and Coinbase have partnered to launch a blockchain-based payment and settlement system aimed at supporting 24/7 trading and cross-border transactions. The collaboration combines Citi's 300-network global payments infrastructure with Coinbase's digital asset expertise to develop real-time fiat-to-stablecoin solutions, representing a step toward integrating traditional finance with on-chain settlement.

Huntington Bank debuted a fintech venture studio with Alloy Partners to co-create startups focused on payments, wealth management, and generative AI and other emerging technologies. The initiative is focused on accelerating innovation, enhancing software productivity and positioning the Ohio-based bank as a fintech leader. The studio rollout comes just after Huntington announced a $7.4 billion all-stock deal to acquire Cadence Bank and completed its purchase of Dallas-based Veritex Holdings.

Chief risk officers at banks increasingly are focused on nonfinancial issues such as AI, fraud, regulation and third-party threats, said panelists at an industry event. This reflects a broader industry trend toward integrating operational and technological risk oversight. "Three to five years out, the disruption that we're going to see in technology, financial crimes and fraud [is] almost immeasurable relative to where we sit today," said Brad Bender, chief risk officer at Truist.

State regulation plays a crucial role in shaping financial-services policy, particularly during periods of federal uncertainty, said Avy Mallik, who recently became a partner at Morrison Foerster after serving as general counsel of the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation and as fintech policy director for the House Financial Services Committee. Mallik noted that states such as California take the lead in crafting nuanced regulations that address local needs while fostering innovation, although he also acknowledged the importance of federal standards for providing overall certainty and stability in the industry.