Overview
- President Trump signed the two executive orders on May 19 that direct the Treasury and bank regulators to issue guidance on identifying risks tied to non‑citizen customers and to propose changes to the Bank Secrecy Act.
- The White House stopped short of mandating routine collection of customers’ citizenship status and instead ordered regulators to strengthen customer identification programs and ‘red flag’ typologies for suspicious activity.
- A separate order requires the Federal Reserve to report within 120 days on its legal authority and options to grant non‑bank fintech and digital‑asset firms access to Reserve Bank payment accounts, with other agencies given roughly 90 days to review rules that impede fintech‑bank partnerships.
- Banks and industry groups warn the measures could be costly, operationally complex and risk increasing the number of unbanked people, while fintech and crypto firms say the orders create a clearer route to core payment infrastructure.
- The moves reshape two policy tracks at once: tighter anti‑money‑laundering and onboarding scrutiny linked to immigration concerns, and a push to integrate fintech and crypto into U.S. payment rails that will prompt rulemaking, supervisory action, and intensified congressional oversight.