💥 $175B Shakeup? SEC Cuts + New SSN Rule Could Change Everything | Marketing’s Most Wanted

Hi Marketing Wranglers,

This week we’re zooming in on the ripple effects of four big decisions that are reshaping how companies communicate with customers, manage compliance, and navigate public trust:

• The Supreme Court just upheld one of the ACA’s most popular provisions, preserving no-cost preventive care for over 150 million Americans.

• Meanwhile, federal agencies are rushing to digitize $175B in annual payments by September.

• Over at the SEC, a shrinking budget signals fewer exams and fewer rules just as enforcement risks are shifting.

• And finally, identity checks just got smoother for fintechs thanks to a long-overdue SSN rule change.

🚨 In This Week’s Issue

🛡️ Preventive Care Prevails: Supreme Court upholds the ACA’s no-cost preventive care mandate.

💸 The $175B Payment Overhaul: Federal agencies must digitize payments by September—fraud and compliance impact ahead.

🧯 Is the SEC Shrinking: Budget cuts mean fewer staff and exams amid shifting regulatory priorities.

📲 SSN Rule Relaxed: Fintechs can now onboard customers without collecting full SSNs directly.

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🛡️ Preventive Care Prevails: Supreme Court Upholds ACA Mandate

For most Americans, preventive care, like mammograms, childhood vaccines, HIV-prevention pills, or birth control, is simply part of a regular doctor’s visit. But behind the scenes, a key provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has long guaranteed that these services are covered by insurers at no cost to the patient. It’s a policy that affects over 150 million people. And it was nearly dismantled.

The Case That Sparked National Concern

The case, Braidwood Management v. Becerra, was brought by a Christian-owned business that objected to covering HIV prevention drugs on religious grounds. But what started as a religious freedom argument quickly ballooned into a broader constitutional challenge.

The plaintiffs argued that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the expert panel that determines which services insurers must cover, had no legal authority to make such decisions.

Why? Because its volunteer members aren’t appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate.

A Technical Argument with Massive Consequences

It might sound like a bureaucratic technicality, but the implications were enormous. If the court had agreed, the ACA’s guarantee of no-cost preventive care could have unraveled. Insurers and employers would no longer be required to cover cancer screenings, prenatal care, vaccines, or contraception.

Preventive care, one of the few parts of the U.S. healthcare system that saves money by catching problems early, would have become optional overnight.

The Court’s Verdict

In a 6–3 decision written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court rejected the challenge.

The majority ruled that while USPSTF members are not confirmed by the Senate, they do operate under the supervision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), a presidential appointee who is confirmed by the Senate. That chain of accountability, the Court said, is enough to satisfy the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.

Kavanaugh wrote: “The structure of the Task Force and the manner of appointing its officers preserve the chain of political accountability that was central to the Framers’ design.”

The case centered on whether government-appointed bodies (like the USPSTF) have the authority to mandate coverage policies. For any company that offers employee health benefits or builds compliance tools (e.g., HR software, insurance platforms), the decision reinforces federal standards they must follow.

The Supreme Court upheld the ACA's preventive care mandate and confirmed that the USPSTF operates under lawful authority. This means companies must continue to comply with all four federally mandated categories of preventive care, no exemptions based on this ruling.

What Does This Mean for Marketers?

For health insurers, digital health platforms, benefits providers, and wellness startups, this ruling protects a powerful value proposition: free, preventive healthcare coverage. 

The uncertainty around the case may have paused campaigns or required legal vetting. Now, marketers can confidently highlight these benefits again:

• “We cover preventive care, including cancer screenings, contraception, and HIV prevention, at no extra cost to you, just as the ACA intended.”

This ruling gives marketing teams clarity and confidence in promoting preventive care without triggering compliance risk.

Why This Matters Now

This ruling does more than protect the authority of a task force, it protects the stability of the entire preventive care ecosystem. The ACA designates four categories of preventive services, including those recommended by USPSTF, the CDC’s immunization panel, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for women and children. With this decision, all four remain fully intact.

This wasn’t just a legal battle over appointments. It was a direct threat to how preventive care is funded and delivered in America. The ruling signals that, for now, the courts are unwilling to let ideological or procedural arguments undermine one of the ACA’s most popular and effective provisions.

The message is clear: preventive care still has a strong legal foundation, and 150 million Americans can breathe a little easier.

Read more on Insurance Newsnet.

💸 The Government’s $175B Payments Overhaul:  What It Means for the Future of Disbursements

The U.S. federal government is facing a fast-approaching deadline: by September 30, it must begin complying with an executive order that requires the digitization of all government disbursements, a sweeping change that could impact over $175 billion in annual payments and reshape how public funds are distributed.

What sounds like a bureaucratic back-office upgrade is actually a regulatory and operational earthquake, one with deep implications for compliance systems, fraud risk, financial inclusion, and consumer experience.

And while the mandate was issued during the Trump administration, its execution is now a full-scale modernization effort under intense time pressure.

From Paper to Digital

Government agencies still rely heavily on paper checks, a payment method that’s outdated, expensive, fraud-prone, and out of sync with consumer expectations.

But transitioning to real-time payments, debit cards, PayPal, and digital wallets is not just a technical shift; it demands a complete rebuild of how agencies manage identity, data collection, fraud monitoring, and dispute resolution.

The issue?

Many recipients of government checks don’t have traditional bank accounts, accessible routing numbers, or even digital contact details. And unlike private insurers or fintechs, government systems face stricter oversight and broader accessibility requirements. That means payment digitization can’t just be ACH-only—it needs consumer choice and fraud-safe infrastructure.

What’s Next?

The government must now:

• Build out connections to multiple digital payment rails (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, ACH, and even prepaid cards)
  

• Validate account ownership and identity in real-time
  

• Create accessible options for the unbanked
  

• Install fraud detection, dispute management, and support systems at scale

This isn’t optional. It’s a matter of regulatory compliance with anti-fraud controls, KYC obligations, and audit-ready digital trails now becoming table stakes for government payouts.

Digitizing disbursements could save the federal government hundreds of millions annually. According to Pickering, a single paper check can cost up to $15 to produce and mail, while digital rails cut that cost by over 90%.

The added bonus? A steep drop in check fraud, which includes stolen mail, chemically “washed” checks, and counterfeits.

Digital payments, in contrast, offer device fingerprinting, geographic matching, and third-party verification—all of which help prevent fraud before the money moves.

Big Picture

This transformation isn’t just about speed, it’s about access. Many Americans still fall outside the banking system. Ingo and similar firms are advocating for a full-stack solution that can issue virtual accounts or prepaid cards on the fly, bringing financial services to underserved groups while meeting strict compliance and fraud standards.

“The full solution in our view is to give the consumer choice,” Pickering said. “That’s the critical thing, to interact with them digitally and give them a menu of choices.”

For private companies working with or alongside federal programs, whether in benefits platforms, payroll, fintech, health reimbursements, or insurance disbursements, this shift is more than operational. It’s a marketing signal.

Consumers increasingly expect choice: debit cards, wallets, instant transfers, not checkbooks and vague wait times. If your platform offers flexibility, fast access, and real-time transparency, you’re not just compliant….you’re competitive.

Takeaway

Whether you're in fintech, insurtech, payroll, or govtech, this change is your signal to get ahead of the curve. Digital payment choice isn't just a feature… it’s a compliance-ready, fraud-reducing, user-trusted infrastructure that’s quickly becoming the baseline. 

Agencies are adapting. Are you?

Read more on PYMNTS.

🧯 Budget Cuts, Staff Exits & Fewer Exams: A New Era at the SEC?

After decades of steady expansion, the SEC is officially shrinking, and not just in size, but in scope. 

In its newly released FY 2026 Congressional Budget Justification, the Securities and Exchange Commission paints a stark picture of what’s to come: fewer rules, fewer staff, fewer exams, and a dramatically different tone from the agency charged with safeguarding U.S. financial markets.

While the Commission is still requesting a $2.1 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, that number represents a 2% decrease from FY 2024.

But the real story isn’t the dollar figure, it’s the 17% drop in total staff the SEC plans to operate with, slashing headcount from nearly 5,000 employees to just over 4,100.

This includes sharp reductions in Enforcement and Examinations, the agency’s most visible and operational divisions.

A Shift in Philosophy

It is a new day at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Rather than warning about systemic risks or new threats in the market, the SEC is now embracing innovation, hinting at a regulatory tone more deferential to market experimentation. That shift is already materializing in the numbers.

• Enforcement staffing is projected to fall by 17% from 1,424 full-time employees in FY 2024 to 1,178 in FY 2026.
  

• The Examinations Division will also contract, from 1,135 to 965 full-time employees.
  

• Even Investment Management, once prolific in its rulemaking, is forecasting a drop from 16 rules per year to just 10.

Voluntary Exits & Deferred Departures

The reduction isn’t just strategic, it’s voluntary. Over 430 SEC employees opted for early retirement in January, including 50 from Enforcement and 22 from Exams. Another 170 have filed for deferred resignation. The attrition is steep… and fast.

And the SEC isn’t alone. Earlier this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) saw its own wave of high-level resignations, including division heads and senior enforcement attorneys. While the agency didn’t publicly detail the reasons, reports suggested growing discomfort with pressure to pull back investigations and scale down enforcement priorities, especially in fintech and consumer lending.

Together, these trends suggest a broader shift: the federal regulatory landscape is entering a quieter, leaner phase, just as new risks like AI-driven fraud to crypto volatility are gaining momentum.

Fewer Exams, Lower Coverage

The numbers tell a clear story: registered investment advisers (RIAs) and broker-dealers can expect fewer eyes on their operations. The SEC estimates:

• Roughly 11% of RIAs will be examined in FY 2026 down from 15% in prior years.

• Only 45% of broker-dealers will be examined compared to a high of 53% in FY 2024.

For firms used to annual or biannual reviews, this could create operational uncertainty: Does less oversight mean more freedom, or more risk of being caught off guard?

What It Means for Compliance & Marketing Teams

For compliance professionals, this moment is a paradox. On one hand, fewer exams and looser enforcement might suggest breathing room. But on the other, regulatory uncertainty grows when an agency loses personnel but not its statutory mandates. Internal controls, disclosures, and recordkeeping should not relax, because enforcement may become more targeted and less forgiving when it does happen.

For marketing teams in financial services, investment, or fintech, this could feel like a green light,but tread carefully.

The drop in Investment Management rulemaking doesn’t mean existing rules go away.

And in a reduced-staff environment, regulators may turn to post-incident enforcement, not pre-emptive guidance. 

That means what you say publicly, especially around risk, return, or compliance, could still be subject to heavy scrutiny, just retroactively.

Final Thought: Quiet Doesn’t Mean Safe

This budget marks a philosophical and operational pivot at the SEC, one shaped by political winds, staffing losses, and a shift in regulatory posture.

But the agency’s three-part mission (investor protection, market fairness, and capital formation) still stands.

It just might look different in how (and when) it’s enforced.

Read more at Regulatory Compliance Watch.

📲 Easier Onboarding : SSN Rule Relaxed for Banks & Fintechs

In a rare moment of regulatory alignment, four major U.S. financial watchdogs just made it easier to open a digital account without friction.

On June 27, the FDIC, OCC, NCUA, and FinCEN issued a joint notice that exempts banks and fintechs from the rigid requirement to collect the full nine-digit Social Security Number (SSN) directly from customers at onboarding under the Customer Identification Program (CIP) Rule.

This change marks a significant win for the digital finance ecosystem, and a long-awaited update to a rule that many in the industry saw as outdated.

A Win for Digital Identity... and for Common Sense

Until now, fintechs and their bank partners were required to collect all nine digits of an SSN directly from the customer, a challenge for fully digital onboarding flows, especially when third-party verification tools already validate identity more securely in the background.

Now, with this updated guidance, financial institutions can rely on trusted third-party data providers to obtain and verify SSNs as part of their risk-based CIP procedures.

For many fintechs, this unlocks a smoother, lower-friction onboarding experience without sacrificing compliance integrity.

Regulatory Flexibility with Real Impact

This is more than a policy update, it’s a signal. Regulators are increasingly recognizing the need to adapt compliance frameworks to the realities of modern financial services, where biometric checks, tokenized data, and trusted KYC vendors are often more secure than manual uploads or outdated forms.

For marketing and product teams, the implications are just as exciting:

• Faster onboarding and fewer drop-offs during signup

• Cleaner UX that doesn’t force customers to manually enter sensitive data

• Better alignment between customer expectations and regulatory safeguards

The rule change also supports efforts to reduce identity theft, as many fraudsters take advantage of rigid, predictable verification processes that can be gamed. A risk-based, tech-first approach allows for adaptive controls that respond to real-time threats.

Compliance Insight: What You Still Need to Know

To be clear, this is not a rollback of KYC obligations—just a modernization of how customer identity can be verified. Banks and fintechs must still:

• Maintain a written CIP
  

• Collect sufficient identifying information
  

• Verify identity before account opening is complete
  

• Retain documentation and follow ongoing monitoring procedures

But now, those requirements can be fulfilled without demanding the SSN directly from the consumer, so long as reliable third-party data is used and documented properly.

What Comes Next

This announcement comes after sustained pressure from fintech trade groups and signals a broader regulatory trend: pragmatism over paperwork. 

With continued focus on financial inclusion, secure identity verification, and fraud prevention, expect more incremental changes like this—especially as AI, biometrics, and API-powered onboarding tools grow in adoption.

More details on FTA news.

💬 We’re launching a community for Marketing, Compliance, and Legal teams to stay up to date on regulatory changes—and help each other navigate them.

→ Join the community here.