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, the New York Times reported. 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 proposed rule could take effect as soon as next year. A September report from the bureau spotlighted the ways Apple and Google use their dominance as mobile phone makers to steer customers toward their own tap-to-pay digital wallet products. Consumers moved $893 billion through payment services last year — including digital wallets, payment apps and Zelle, a system owned by a consortium of banks — according to an estimate cited by the consumer bureau, and keep billions of dollars stored in those apps. Americans have been slower than consumers in other countries to adopt digital payments, but the pandemic sharply accelerated their use.
