By: Reporter - Sarah Barnett
Consumers can handle everything from buying coffee to entering concerts with a tap on their phones; meanwhile, wallet apps continue to add new features, such as lending, investing, crypto assets, digital IDs, and virtual cards. Regulators, however, are trapped in old rules, chasing after new applications.
From 'Beam Transfers' to Financial Life on Billions of Phones
Back in 1999—eight years before the first iPhone was released—a Silicon Valley startup called Confinity packaged PayPal.com as a 'killer app,' claiming users could transfer money with just an email address.
Even more bizarrely, it started with an even more peculiar concept: transferring funds via infrared 'beams.' Confinity famously demonstrated at Buck's, a breakfast spot in Woodside, California: beaming $3 million using a Palm Pilot device—an event later recounted by co-founders Max Levchin and Peter Thiel during a Stanford talk.
Fast forward 25 years, the 'email transfer' experiment has evolved into a global digital wallet industry, installed on billions of phones—many users even consider plastic cards as outdated as landlines.
Wallets Can Do Everything Now—That’s the Point
Today's digital wallets are far more than just payment tools. They can also store:
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Digital driver's licenses and passports
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Tickets and passes
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Cryptocurrency
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Stocks and trading tools
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Loans and direct deposits
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Virtual credit/debit cards and reward points
Fintech players like PayPal and Block (parent of Cash App) are continuously adding features to compete for the next wave of users.
Who’s in the Lead in the U.S.
Statista's Q3 survey shows that over the past 12 months, the most used payment services among U.S. users were:
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PayPal—32%
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Cash App—25%
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Apple—20%
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Google—14%
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Venmo—14%
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Samsung—3%
Statista stated that among Q3 respondents, 77% had used at least one of the top three wallets (PayPal, Cash App, Apple); the survey was based on an sample of approximately 60,000 U.S. adults aged 18–64.
The Federal Reserve's annual payments survey also shows rapid growth in mobile payments: consumers used mobile payments an average of 11 times per month last year, compared to just 4 times in 2018. The 18–24 age group completed 45% of all payments via mobile; while households with annual incomes under $25,000 and those 55 and older relied more on cash.
Globally, Juniper Research estimates there are currently about 4.5 billion digital wallet users and predicts this will grow to 6 billion by 2029.
Data Challenge: Big Tech Doesn’t Love Disclosing User Numbers
In the U.S., the precise scale of digital wallet usage is hard to pin down because Apple and Google don't disclose user numbers and often bundle wallet performance into larger business categories.
Block is more transparent: Cash App reported having 58 million active users as of September 2025.
CFPB Wanted to Wield a Bigger 'Regulatory Stick'—Then It Was Taken Away
As digital wallets expanded into more 'bank-like' territories, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) under the Biden administration pushed for more direct oversight.
Lacey Aaker, a former CFPB policy analyst now at Consumer Reports, believes the issue is simple: in the eyes of the average user, digital wallets look like banks but may not have the same protections—and most people don't read the fine print about deposit insurance or which transfers are covered by federal rules.
In November 2023, the CFPB proposed a rule titled **'Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications.'** The core idea was to bring the largest non-bank payment apps under the CFPB's supervisory examination purview, including routine checks similar to those for banks.
According to the report cited in this article, the CFPB's final rule (later overturned) would have covered 7 non-bank entities processing at least 50 million consumer transactions annually—accounting for 98% of approximately 13.5 billion consumer payment transactions.
The CFPB did not name companies in the rule text. But when Congress moved to overturn the rule, the names emerged: the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution mentioned Google, Apple, Samsung, PayPal (and its Venmo), Block (Cash App), and Meta (Facebook).
The rule took effect in January 2025. Tech companies filed lawsuits to block it, and lawmakers moved to repeal it. After Congress passed the relevant resolution, President Trump signed it in May, reversing the CFPB's regulatory approach.
Jonathan Pompan, a Washington lawyer at Venable, described the CFPB's attempt as trying to force old-style consumer credit laws onto modern payments and said Congress 'pulled the plug.'
Regulatory Reality Check: Digital Wallets *Are* Regulated—Just 'Messily'
Even with the repeal of the CFPB's 'Larger Participant' rule, digital wallets remain under a dense web of legal regulations.
According to sources cited in the article, primary regulations typically include:
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State-level money transmitter licensing (and corresponding enforcement authority)
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Federal consumer protection requirements related to Electronic Fund Transfer rules (Reg E / EFTA) (specific applicability depends on product and transaction type)
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Enforcement of UDAP/UDAAP (unfair, deceptive, abusive acts or practices) by the CFPB and FTC, among others
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Financial crime compliance requirements from the Department of Treasury/ FinCEN, where applicable
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Regulatory constraints borne by partner banks when wallet funds flow through insured depository institutions
Laura Huntley, Managing Director at FTI Consulting and a former bank regulatory lawyer, stated bluntly: digital wallets have been and will continue to be regulated—just under what she calls a 'dense and messy' framework. A spokesperson for the Financial Technology Association similarly emphasized that wallet businesses are highly regulated through state licenses and banking partnerships.
The CFPB Itself Became Part of the News
The article notes that the CFPB's future is facing questions, including controversies over its funding mechanism, and multiple reports indicating its enforcement work is being transferred to the Department of Justice, accompanied by potential layoffs.
Huntley and others also pointed out that if federal enforcement weakens further, a likely outcome is that State Attorneys General will 'step in' as the new primary market regulators.
Why the U.S. Differs from Markets Like India, Brazil
Statista analyst Raynor de Best suggests the U.S. didn't build its payment system from scratch around digital wallets because Americans have long been deep users of credit/debit cards.
In many emerging markets, mobile payment infrastructure and regulation grew almost simultaneously; whereas the U.S. is trying to 'bolt on' wallet regulation to a complex federal/state dual structure atop a mature card payment system.
Trust Is Everything
Consultants cited in the article stated that compliant wallet platforms have a strong incentive to protect users: once trust is lost, the foundation for platform growth is lost.
Google said it maintains communication with regulators and supports a consistent regulatory framework that both protects consumers and fosters innovation.
Owen Jennings, business lead at Block, stated that Cash App's recent expansions—including digital currency and broader lending—reflect users' current lifestyles but also raise the 'trust threshold': as the app becomes a full financial platform, risks and responsibilities increase accordingly.
Impact on MSBs
For MSBs and payment practitioners, the real risk isn't 'no regulation,' but rather cognitive confusion, regulatory inconsistency, and ever-expanding product functionalities.
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Disclosures and User Expectations: Users might assume balances are FDIC-insured or dispute handling works like a bank account—but the scope of protection can vary by feature.
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Reg E Operations: Error resolution and unauthorized transaction handling become complex when wallets mix transfers, cards, stored value, and third-party channels.
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State Licensing Pressure: 'Patchwork regulation' remains—expanding into new functionalities can trigger new state and federal compliance obligations.
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Dependence on Partner Banks: If your model relies on bank sponsorship/partnerships, the disappearance of the CFPB rule doesn't mean the compliance burden disappears.
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Complaint Handling Paths: Even without an added CFPB examination layer, consumer complaints and reputational damage remain highly damaging.
What to Watch Next
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If federal regulation continues to weaken, whether State Attorney General enforcement accelerates.
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Which new regulators and rules are brought into the fray by wallet function expansion (credit, crypto assets, investing).
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Market Trust Incidents: A major consumer harm event could quickly push the political winds back toward 'strong regulation.'
