Federal Regulators Directed to Identify Fintech Provisions That Could Be Updated, With Updates to Follow at a Later Interval

Federal financial regulators have been directed to review existing rules, guidance documents, and application processes in order to identify provisions that could potentially be amended to facilitate innovation — a task that must be completed within 90 days, after which concrete steps based on the findings are expected within a further 180 days.

The order, signed on 19 May 2026 and titled "Integrating Financial Technology Innovation into Regulatory Frameworks", instructs agencies to examine regulations that may unduly impede fintech firms from partnering with federally regulated institutions, as well as processes governing bank charter applications, deposit insurance, and other federal licences. The Federal Reserve Board has been separately allocated 120 days to produce a report on its own access framework, following which a 90-day decision timeline for individual applications is to be established.

"We welcome the structure that a phased review process provides," said a senior compliance professional familiar with the industry's expectations. "Ninety days to identify which provisions might need changing, followed by an additional period in which the changing would occur, is a coherent approach."

Provisions That Unduly Impede

The review is specifically required to distinguish regulations that unduly impede fintech partnerships from those that impede them in a manner that has not yet been formally categorised. Agencies are expected to balance their findings against considerations including safety and soundness, consumer protection, and market integrity. The order does not specify a method by which this balancing exercise should itself be documented, though it is understood that existing guidance on the documentation of balancing exercises remains in effect.

The order does not create enforceable rights or benefits. Legal analysts described this characteristic as providing regulatory flexibility. An attorney familiar with the process noted that directives of this kind serve primarily to signal intent, and that the market had been awaiting a signal of this type for some time. The attorney noted that the signal was clear.

"What the order tells the industry," said an industry observer, "is that the administration is aware fintech firms exist and wishes to see them, broadly speaking, succeed, subject to the outcome of the review."

A Sequential Framework for Urgency

The Federal Reserve Board has not previously been asked to evaluate its legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks governing fintech access simultaneously, though each of the three elements has been addressed in separate consultation processes at various points since 2015. The FRB's 120-day report is to be submitted to the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, a role whose involvement in payments infrastructure had not previously been a standard feature of the Federal Reserve's reporting calendar.

"The next 180 days will be a significant period," said a spokesperson for a payments industry association. "A number of our members have already begun compiling lists of provisions they would like reviewed. The response has been quite substantial."

The order additionally requests that any new application procedures established by the Federal Reserve include a 90-day decision timeline. Whether this 90-day decision timeline is itself subject to review within the original 90-day review window has not been addressed in the published text.