President Donald Trump’s return to the White House this year is likely to mean opportunity and change for the fast-evolving payments industry.

Payment fintechs, which have proliferated over the past decade, have been eagerly lobbying for regulatory leeway to offer more services, with less government friction. Trump’s administration is likely to give it to them, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be tumult and uncertainty over how the new era progresses, say lawyers who are familiar with the industry.

Fintechs have been begging for more credibility with the federal government for years, seeking to secure some of the same privileges as U.S. banks and credit unions.

National bank charter prospects

With Trump’s administration expected to be more friendly to business interests and innovation, non-bank payments players may finally see a path in pushing the Treasury Department toward creation of a special purpose national bank charter, allowing fintechs to operate in certain areas without a bank license or partner, said Freshfields partner David Sewell.

That quest has bridged Republican and Democratic presidencies despite states’ objections, with attempts at introducing it through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, explained Sewell, who heads Freshfields’ U.S. financial services regulatory work. 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s similar industrial loan company charters have also failed to get traction. Currently, payments players and fintechs companies often must secure 50 state licenses, one by one, to offer their services nationwide, he said in an interview this month.

Such special purpose national charters might preclude the need for companies to obtain money transmitter licenses in every state when they’re seeking to set up a nationwide payments system. For instance, Trump’s billionaire donor Elon Musk has been on a campaign to collect state licenses to create a payments tool attached to his social media site X, though as of Tuesday a new partnership with Visa’s international real-time rail may do the trick.

“If we take the Trump administration at their word, and I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t...I think some kind of a new charter option needs to be on the table,” Sewell said.

Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who was confirmed Monday, hasn’t shown his hand on the prospects for such a special bank charter.  

Stablecoins gain ground via Trump

As for digital assets, the Trump administration has already issued an executive order touting the importance of fostering innovation in the digital assets. That Jan. 23 edict supports the increased use of stablecoins, a cryptocurrency tied to the value of a fixed asset, such as the dollar.

As a result, stablecoins may develop more relevance in the economy, including possibly as a form of payment. It’s another area where the federal government has an opportunity to overcome the current dominance of some states, including New York, in setting regulations for stablecoin use, said Crowell & Moring partner Anand Sithian. 

Republican majorities in the House and the Senate may aid Trump’s stablecoin agenda. That could mean a new charter of sorts for stablecoins too, Sithian said. “What I see there is really a role for Congress to step in and provide a federal regulatory framework,” he said in an interview this month.

At the same time, Trump’s order echoed congressional moves to steer away from the issuance of a central bank digital currency.

How Congress handles the Credit Card Competition Act proposal if it’s reintroduced remains to be seen. While the legislation’s key proponent was then Democratic Senate Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, one of the bill’s few sponsors last year also included then Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, who is now Trump’s vice president. The bill’s aim to break Visa and Mastercard’s dominance in exacting fees from merchants also received Republican support during a Senate Judiciary hearing last year. 

How Trump will shape CFPB policy on payments

As for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s efforts to rein in payments companies, the Biden administration has been aggressive under Director Rohit Chopra. The agency has issued rules attempting to set parameters for emerging payments tools, like buy now, pay later, and earned wage access services. Some of them, including those related to BNPL and oversight of big tech companies’ digital wallets, have been challenged in court. 

While Chopra has remained atop of the agency for now, he’s expected to exit soon, given Trump’s authority to appoint a new director. Still, the agency’s staff has been engaged in a flurry of activity recently, seemingly in anticipation of an impending Trump shift.

Over the past month, the agency sued Early Warning Services alleging the company let fraud “fester” on its Zelle system; rescinded an earned wage access advisory opinion issued during the first Trump administration; and urged states to step up oversight of consumer issues.

Indeed, many states have been active, albeit at odds oftentimes, in trying to set new regulations for BNPL and EWA. They’ve also had different approaches to other emerging payments legislation, such as whether to allow credit card issuers and networks to impose interchange fees on taxes and tips. 

Former CFPB General Counsel David Silberman, who is now a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, points to the mission statements of the first Trump administration to suggest it will likely encourage financial enterprises.

“The CFPB, under the Trump administration, would probably have a strong free market orientation, and would be looking to assure that consumers are empowered to make decisions for themselves, whereas under Director Chopra, there was more of an emphasis of establishing rules of the road, [and] prohibiting practices that were deemed to be unfair or abusive,” Silberman said in an interview this week.

Any CFPB rules are subject to being rescinded, noted Silberman. The Congressional Review Act gives Trump and his Republican allies in Congress a chance to reverse regulations.

Banks may lose as paytechs gain

Regardless of how specific CFPB issues play out, industry professionals expect a new regulatory environment to support fintech and paytech firms’ efforts to innovate and expand. And that may come at the banks’ expense.

The Trump administration may pave the way for new entrants taking on established financial institutions, especially in light of the president’s sometimes testy tone toward big banks and their CEOs. While he has sparred with Jamie Dimon, CEO of the largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase, Trump has recently embraced technology players, inviting tech moguls Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Apple CEO Tim Cook to inaugural festivities this month.

“You're seeing the innovators and the new entrants into the market in a somewhat more favorable position right now than legacy players,” said Sewell. “Don't forget that President Trump, and a lot of people around him, don’t like the big banks, at all.”

Even so, investors expect Capital One’s proposed acquisition of Discover Financial Services to be approved as the Trump administration curtails aggressive antitrust oversight. The companies’ stocks jumped after Trump was elected. The $35-billion deal was proposed in February 2024, and remains under Justice Department review. 

Another pending DOJ effort that’s pending is the department’s antitrust lawsuit lodged against Visa last year. The San Francisco-based card network may hope a friendlier Trump administration reconsiders the case over alleged monopolistic acts in the debit card market, though fintechs, including big tech, are arguably beneficiaries of the DOJ action. 

Visa CEO Ryan McInerney has vowed to fight the case. And as of this week, Visa has a tie to Trump ally Musk, whose X social media site has forged a partnership with the card giant to support the launch of a new digital wallet.