Apple will now be treated like a bank

It's not about Apple. It's Apple, Google and Amazon, PayPal, Block, Venmo and Zelle.[1] Everybody with over 50,000,000 transactions annually gets CFPB oversight. Actual rule: [2]

This doesn't really do much. It creates no consumer rights. It does give CFPB examiners the power to examine records and interview people. It means that numbers such as how many PayPal customers have complaints will be looked at. Bank examiners look at error rates, fraud losses, unresolved complaints, and such. The effect will probably be that some of the big players with weak customer service will have to get their act together.

[1] https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-final...

[2] https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_final-rul...

> Everybody with over 50,000,000 transactions annually gets CFPB oversight.

This is such a simple, straightforward rule. No weird gotchas, exceptions, or whatever. Just the most basic test you can think of for "are you acting as a financial institution in the most obvious day-to-day sense of the term?" and a reasonably sane (I think?) threshold.

It's also so bloody easy to prepare for. Are you handling 1M transactions anually? No worries, keep doing your thing. Are you handling 20M transactions annually? You probably want to start planning. 40M p.a.? You want to be preempt the moment when you get regulated.

Simple rules are an antidote to corruption and inefficiency, but only if they are paired with transparency and a judicial system willing to enforce the spirit of the laws, lest they be easily gameable.