Fintechs Increase Lobbying Spending on EWA, AI, and Crypto

Major fintech firms increased lobbying spending during the first half of the year compared to their previous spending in the same time frame of 2023, notably on AI, cryptocurrency, and earned wage access (EWA). These findings were reported by OpenSecrets, which cited filings that companies made to comply with the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

“That trend that new companies providing a new kind of service are getting involved in lobbying to limit the regulation of these new services from the very beginning is notable,” said Dan Auble, senior researcher at OpenSecrets, according to Banking Dive. PayPal, for example, spent over $800,000, which is higher than the same time period during every other year.

A notable finding among PayPal’s efforts was increasing the $600 reporting threshold for business transactions on e-commerce and P2P payment apps, which was established in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The legislation greatly reduced the threshold from $20,000 for taxpayers who receive a Form 1099-K.

Neobank Chime spent $1.05 million on lobbying, specifically on efforts related to EWA, about which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued an interpretive rule, making EWA payments subject to the Truth in Lending Act.

“Three of [Chime’s] 23 lobbyists are officially working on specific legislation, the Earned Wage Access Consumer Protection Act, while the rest are working on categories similar to those of Early Warning Services,” the report said.

Earnin spent $300,000 on federal lobbying, also focused on the Earned Wage Access Consumer Protection Act, a bill introduced in February to set guidelines for the fintech industry, but exempts EWAs from the Truth in Lending Act.

Additionally, Block spent almost $1 million, which is its biggest six-month lobbying expenditure to date. Its lobbying efforts were focused primarily on AI and cryptocurrency.