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Congress Killed the $5 Overdraft Fee Cap. Here's What It Actually Costs Your Business Now
Congress repealed the CFPB's $5 overdraft fee cap via the Congressional Review Act in May 2025, before it ever took effect — large banks now charge $10 to $36 per overdraft and collected over $12 billion in overdraft and NSF revenue in a year. Here's what the repeal means for small business bank accounts, which states are stepping in, and five concrete ways to stop paying the fee.
Check Washing Is Back: How to Protect Your Small Business's Accounts Payable From Mail Theft Fraud
Check fraud losses hit roughly $21 billion in 2023 and mail-receptacle theft rose 139% between FY2019 and FY2023. This guide covers the accounts-payable controls that actually stop check washing — positive pay, weekly reconciliation inside the UCC 4-406 window, gel ink, and separating check-writing from reconciliation.
Why 'FDIC-Insured' Didn't Protect Synapse's Customers: A Business Owner's Guide to Fintech Deposit Risk
Synapse Financial Technologies' April 2024 bankruptcy trapped over $265 million belonging to more than 100,000 fintech customers, despite their funds sitting at FDIC-insured banks, because the middleware ledger tracking who owned what inside pooled "FBO" accounts fell apart — exposing a gap between deposit insurance and banking-as-a-service infrastructure that remains largely unclosed as of mid-2026.
Letters of Credit for First-Time Exporters: How a Bank Guarantee Gets You Paid Overseas
A letter of credit is a bank's guarantee to pay an exporter once shipping documents match its terms exactly — issuance typically costs 0.75%-2% of the transaction, and the ICC estimates 60-70% of first-time document presentations get rejected for discrepancies.
The New 1% Remittance Tax: What Small Business Owners Sending Money Abroad Need to Know
A 1% federal excise tax applies to cash-funded international money transfers starting January 1, 2026, but bank, debit, and credit card transfers are exempt — here's how small businesses can avoid it.
The White House's 2026 Fintech Executive Order: A Small Business Banking Guide
A May 19, 2026 executive order pushes banks and fintechs closer together, reviving the layered-partnership risks the 2024 Synapse collapse exposed — here's what small business owners should watch and do before the 90- and 180-day regulatory deadlines hit in August and November 2026.
Getting Paid in Stablecoins: What the GENIUS Act Means for Small Business
The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, creates the first federal framework for payment stablecoins, and small businesses accepting them must record fair market value at receipt, track cost basis per transaction, and prepare for Form 1099-DA reporting starting with 2026 transactions.
Open Banking in Limbo: What the CFPB Section 1033 Rollback Means for Small Business Bank Feeds
A federal court injunction and a CFPB reversal have frozen the Personal Financial Data Rights rule (Section 1033), leaving small businesses uncertain whether bank-feed access to accounting, lending, and cash-flow tools will stay free, secure, and reliable.
Paying Unbanked Employees: A Payroll Card Compliance Guide
Federal Regulation E (12 CFR § 1005.18) and more than 20 state paycard statutes require employers to offer unbanked employees a fee-free payment alternative, obtain genuinely voluntary consent, and guarantee at least one no-fee full-balance withdrawal per pay period.
Positive Pay: The Bank Service That Stops Check Fraud Before It Clears
Positive Pay is a business bank service that matches every check against your issued-check list and flags mismatches the same day, a control most eligible small business accounts still don't use even though checks remain the most-targeted form of payments fraud.
Why Regulation E Won't Save Your Business From Wire Fraud: UCC Article 4A Liability Explained
Business wire transfers are governed by UCC Article 4A, not Regulation E, meaning a company can be held liable for a fraudulent wire if its bank's security procedure was commercially reasonable, even though 86% of the FBI's $3.05 billion in 2025 BEC losses moved via wire or ACH.
CFPB Section 1071 Small Business Lending Rule Explained
The CFPB's Section 1071 small business lending rule takes effect January 1, 2028, requiring lenders that originate at least 1,000 covered small business credit transactions annually to collect and report data on applicants with $1 million or less in gross annual revenue, including optional demographic information.