For the fintech industry, 2025 was a volatile year filled with a mix of uncertainty and opportunity. Federal priorities shifted overnight to a sweeping deregulatory agenda: enforcement was largely shut down, the Biden administration’s focus on addressing redlining and other discriminatory practices was cancelled, and the new administration openly embraced digital currencies as a viable financial product. However, perceiving a regulatory void, several states jumpstarted their own initiatives to counter federal deregulation, while the absence of the Chevron deference framework has also led to courts taking on technical questions of statutory interpretation typically reserved for professional regulators, leaving fintechs and other regulated companies with arguably less certainty than ever.
Another defining aspect of 2025 was the artificial intelligence (AI) boom that continues to drive automation and new product innovations, from sophisticated underwriting models, to generative output, agentic functions and fraud prevention, among other things. AI continues to permeate the entire fintech industry.
As we discuss in this article, 2026 is likely to see some of these trends relating to regulatory reform slow down and possibly start to reverse by year-end. However, the rapid growth of AI and the evolving regulatory landscape for digital assets, among other things, are likely to continue through the year and beyond. State initiatives to plant their own flags around regulation and consumer protection and increased civil litigation are likely here to stay.
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"Fintech 2026 – USA – Washington," by R. Andrew Arculin, Michael J. Barry, Paula M. Vigo Marqués, and Louise Bowes Marencik was published in Chambers and Partners on March 31, 2026.