The Daily Fuckup

President Donald Trump signed two financial executive orders on May 19 that send regulators off in different directions, but neither one changes bank rules on its own.

One order tells Treasury to issue an advisory to financial institutions within 60 days on suspicious activity tied to non-work-authorized populations and their employers, then to propose Bank Secrecy Act changes within 90 days to strengthen risk-based customer due diligence. It also asks Treasury and the federal banking regulators to consider customer-identification changes within 180 days, and tells the CFPB and other regulators to examine how deportation risk and lost wages could affect repayment under ability-to-repay standards.

The other order tells federal financial regulators to review existing regulations, guidance, supervisory practices, and application processes within 90 days to see what could be updated to support fintech competition and innovation. It separately asks the Federal Reserve to evaluate the legal and policy framework for access to Reserve Bank payment accounts and payment services for uninsured depository institutions and nonbank financial companies, including firms involved in digital assets and other novel financial activity.

The Fed is requested to report back within 120 days with findings, options, and recommendations. And only if the board concludes existing law allows direct access does the order ask it to create transparent application procedures and rule on complete applications within 90 days of the filing date.

The practical result, for now, is a pair of paperwork-heavy directives. The administration has put more scrutiny on one side of the ledger and more pressure for review on the other, but the real changes still depend on what agencies write next, and whether the law lets them write it.