🚨 FTC’s Compliance Purge, Fintechs Turn Banks & AI Scams Get Busted | Marketing’s Most Wanted #7

Hi Marketing Wranglers,

Hope you’re ready because this week’s headlines are wild. We thought about doing a two-parter but figured everyone is a little burned out from the news cycle.

The FTC just wiped out years of compliance guidance, a fintech is making its banking debut (what could go wrong?), and AI scammers are officially on notice. Let’s break it all down.

🚨 In This Week’s Issue

🧼 The FTC Just Hit Delete on 300+ Compliance Guides: What happens when the FTC erases years of compliance guidance for Big Tech? Marketers, fintechs, and legal teams are left scrambling.

 🏦Fintech’s New Bank Move: SmartBiz just became a bank, but with great power comes great compliance headaches.

🤖 FTC Cracks Down on AI Scams—The End of the “Fake It Till You Make It” Era?: The “fake it till you make it” AI era is over—here’s what the latest enforcement sweep means for marketing.

🧼 The FTC Just Hit Delete on 300+ Compliance Guides

Big Tech shouldn’t be celebrating.

Last week, the FTC quietly deleted more than 300 pieces of compliance guidance—including detailed insights on AI, privacy laws, and consumer protection.

These weren’t fluffy blog posts. They were practical playbooks—how to stay compliant, avoid million-dollar fines, and build trust in high-risk areas like kids’ data, AI training practices, and algorithmic transparency.

Now? Poof. Gone.

⚠️ What Got Erased

Under the new Trump administration, the FTC wiped out a decade of business guidance—especially anything aimed at Big Tech. Among the casualties:

• A breakdown of how Amazon allegedly used kids’ voice data to train AI models (“Hey, Alexa! What Are You Doing With My Data?”)

• Case studies on COPPA enforcement (that’s the law protecting kids' privacy online)

• A deep dive into a $20M settlement with Microsoft over children’s data mishandling

Without this guidance, fintechs, marketers, and compliance teams are left in a regulatory fog—navigating the same enforcement landscape with far fewer guardrails.

This leaves behind a compliance vacuum. Fintechs, healthcare platforms, and even Big Tech are now flying blind. The enforcement risk hasn’t gone away—but the guardrails have.

Let’s be clear:
📜 The laws still exist.
🧑‍⚖️ The FTC can still fine you.
❌ You just lost the instruction manual.

Why This Hurts Big Tech (Not Helps)

Sure, less oversight sounds like good news—until you realize where Big Tech is headed:

• Amazon wants in on used cars

• X is angling to become a bank

• Meta + Microsoft are embedding AI into everything

These aren’t playgrounds. They’re highly regulated markets, where trust is earned—and enforced.

And, even if regulators chill out...your customers won’t.

Just ask Robinhood, which got slapped with a new $26M FINRA fine and $3.75M in restitution last week. But the bigger cost? Brand damage. In a trust-driven market, that’s what sticks.

What Does This Mean?

🔹 Uncertainty Just Became the New Normal – With official FTC guidance gone, businesses must rely on past cases and best practices rather than clear, updated directives.

🔹 Regulations Haven’t Gone Away – Even though the guidance is missing, the laws still stand. Companies are still on the hook for data privacy, AI ethics, and marketing transparency.

🔹 A Shift in Enforcement Priorities – The FTC’s new leadership is laser-focused on Big Tech’s content moderation policies, potentially leaving other areas—like AI regulation and data privacy—less aggressively policed.

Looking Ahead

With the rulebook suddenly looking thinner, fintechs and marketers will need to stay proactive—keeping a close eye on regulatory shifts and reading between the lines to avoid compliance missteps.

The FTC may be scrubbing its past, but for businesses navigating compliance, the stakes haven’t changed.

Read more on Wired.

 🏦 Introducing Fintech’s New Bank

Guess who just leveled up? SmartBiz Loans. The fintech company has officially taken over CenTrust Bank, slapped on a fresh coat of paint (aka a rebrand to SmartBiz Bank, N.A.), and scored approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to lend to small businesses nationwide.

This is still a pretty unusual journey for a fintech. A few years back, famous neobanks Brex and Mercury both considered purchasing a banking charter, but nothing materialized as the regulatory environment soured. So, let’s dig in.

Why This Matters

📌 Fintechs Want Banking Privileges—Without the Regulatory Hassle
SmartBiz’s move isn’t just a name change. It’s a signal that more fintechs are eyeing national banking charters to expand their reach. But with great power (aka a banking license) comes great compliance responsibility. Fintechs that go this path open themselves up to a lot more scrutiny on lending practices, data handling, and fair lending requirements.

📌 Marketing Claims Need to Keep Up
SmartBiz now operates as a bank, which means its marketing must align with stricter banking regulations. No more loose claims about “instant approvals” or “guaranteed funding.” Every ad, email, or social post has to be airtight—especially with OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) oversight.

📌 A New Era of Competition
With fintechs stepping into traditional banking roles, we could see a wave of similar acquisitions as the announcement indicates softening regulatory attitudes toward fintech and bank acquisition deals, which could open the door to additional approvals. This means banks need to rethink their digital strategies, and fintechs need to ensure their compliance teams are as strong as their product roadmaps.

What’s Next?
If SmartBiz succeeds in this transition, more fintechs will likely follow suit. For marketing teams, this means evolving strategies that balance bold messaging with bulletproof compliance. And for regulators? Well, they’re watching closely.

Read more on this on the OCC website.

🤖 FTC Cracks Down on AI Scams—The End of the “Fake It Till You Make It” Era?

The FTC just sent a clear message: Using AI as a smokescreen for deception won’t fly.

Under Operation AI Comply, the agency is taking action against multiple companies that allegedly used AI to mislead consumers—whether by selling fake AI-powered legal services, get-rich-quick schemes, or tools that mass-produce bogus online reviews.

What’s Behind the Crackdown?

AI has become a powerful marketing buzzword, with businesses promising game-changing automation and intelligence. But as the FTC’s latest enforcement sweep shows, some companies are using that hype to sell products that don’t live up to their claims.

Take DoNotPay, the self-proclaimed “world’s first robot lawyer.” The company promised consumers AI-generated legal advice, contracts, and even the ability to sue without a lawyer. But according to the FTC, those claims weren’t backed by evidence, and the service failed to deliver on its bold promises. The result? A $193,000 settlement and a super fun warning to past subscribers about the tool’s limitations.

Then there’s Ascend Ecom, an ecommerce scheme that claimed AI could help consumers generate passive income through online storefronts. The FTC alleges the company defrauded consumers out of $25 million, selling them a dream of automated wealth that never materialized. Similar tactics were used by Ecommerce Empire Builders and FBA Machine, both promising AI-powered business success while leaving customers with empty pockets.

What Does This Mean for Marketing?

This crackdown signals a new era of AI marketing accountability—and marketers need to take note:

🔹 AI Hype Won’t Cut It: The FTC is making it clear—if you claim AI can replace professionals, guarantee profits, or offer legal solutions, you better have real evidence to back it up.

🔹 Deceptive Testimonials Are a No-Go: AI-generated fake reviews? That’s now firmly in the FTC’s crosshairs, as seen in the case against Rytr, an AI writing tool used to mass-produce false testimonials.

🔹 Regulators Are Watching: The FTC isn’t working in isolation. As AI regulation tightens worldwide, expect more scrutiny on AI-driven marketing claims—especially in financial services.

Looking Ahead

The AI boom isn’t slowing down, but the days of unregulated AI marketing are coming to an end.

As companies rush to integrate AI into their offerings, the key to staying compliant is simple: transparency, evidence-based claims, and ethical marketing. 

Otherwise, as the FTC just proved, it’s not a matter of if regulators come knocking—it’s when.

Check out the full details on the FTC blog.

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