Chopra Out at CFPB; Job Openings Fall; BNPL Doesn’t Hurt FICO Scores

Job openings fall. Chopra out at CFPB. Senators propose 10% credit card rate cap. Deel valued at $12.6Bn in secondary share sale. Jump, Anchor announce fundraises. Cushion shuts down. DailyPay mulls IPO. BNPL doesn’t hurt FICO scores.

ICYMI: Our team has seen it all and knows how to help fintechs avoid the common payments integration traps. Insights from our latest article show how you can:  

• Design scalable systems
• Balance compliance with rapid growth
• Embrace a proactive approach to AML and customer onboarding  

Get the expert advice your fintech needs to scale securely and avoid integration inefficiencies!

New here? Subscribe here to get our newsletter each Sunday. For even more updates, follow us on LinkedIn.

Job Openings Fall

Job openings unexpectedly fell in December, hitting a three-month low, the latest government Job Openings and Turnover Survey revealed. Open roles declined to 7.6Mn, which suggests a gradual slowing of the job market. The ratio of open roles to unemployed workers remained at 1.1, where it has been for the past six months. The pace of layoffs and the voluntary quit rate remained unchanged.

Chopra Out at CFPB

While he lasted longer than expected, President Trump finally terminated CFPB Director Chopra last week. Trump had previously promised to fire Chopra on “day one,” but Chopra remained active in his role at the CFPB, including continuing to announce enforcement actions, advancing rulemakings, and making public appearances, through his termination. President Trump has named recently confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the acting Director of the CFPB. Bessent will hold the acting role in addition to his day job at Treasury until Trump nominates a director for the CFPB and that person is confirmed.

Sens Hawley, Sanders Proposed Capping Credit Card Rates

In an unlikely alliance, Senators Josh Hawley, a Republican representing Missouri, and Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent, have introduced a bill that would cap credit card interest rates at 10% for five years. The measure follows a similar suggestion President Trump made on the campaign trail, saying, “While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates.” Senator Sanders described card interest rates as “extortion,” say that card issuers “are engaged in extortion and loan sharking. We cannot continue to allow big banks to make huge profits ripping off the American people.” Hawley’s statement echoed Trump’s and Sanders’, saying, “It’s not just wrong, it’s exploitative. And it needs to end.”

Deel Secondary Transaction Values It at $12.6Bn

Some early investors in HR, employer-of-record, and payments startup Deel have cashed out in a $300Mn secondary share sale, the company said. The transaction valued the company at $12.6Bn, slightly up from the $12Bn it was valued at in May 2022. According to reporting from CNBC, General Catalyst and Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, were two of the major purchasers in the secondary offering. Deel says its revenue has surged 70% year over year, hitting an $800Mn run rate. Deel’s CEO teased an eventual IPO, saying it could be in the works for “potentially next year or a bit later.”

Jump Announces $20Mn Fundraise

Jump, which develops AI-powered software for financial advisors, announced it has raised a $20Mn Series A. The round was led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Citi Ventures, Sorenson Capital, and Pelion Venture Partners. Salt Lake-based Jump helps advisors automate repetitive and administrative tasks, such as meeting preparation, updating customer CRM records, gathering compliance documentation, data extraction, and drafting customer recap emails. The company says its tech can easily be integrated to interact with platforms like Salesforce, Zoom, and Teams. Jump says it is growing quickly, with an “average monthly growth rate of over 35%.” Jump plans to use the fresh capital to continue expanding its product offerings and to grow its sales and support functions.

Anchor Raises Series A

An autonomous billing platform, Anchor, announced it has also raised a $20Mn Series A. The round was led by Mosaic General Partnership and Zeev Ventures, with participation from Tal Ventures, Entrée Capital, and a number of individual investors. Anchor had previously raised a $15Mn seed round before exiting “stealth” mode in 2021. Anchor enables its clients to automate accounts receivables management. The company is targeting professional services firms, such as tax prep firms, accountants, and bookkeepers, with its tools to manage proposals, contracts, invoicing, billing, and payments. Having grown 500% in 2024, Anchor plans to use the new funding in part to “double” its workforce and deepen its strategic partnerships.

Cushion Shuts Down

Cushion, a consumer tool to automate bank fee disputes and repayment of BNPL loans, is calling it quits, its founder said on LinkedIn last week. The company used AI to help customers dispute bank fees, such as overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees, and to negotiate refunds. A later pivot involved enabling users to track and automate repayment of BNPL loans on a single dashboard, with Cushion then furnishing that payment data to Experian, to help users build their credit scores. Ultimately, the company didn’t hit “escape velocity,” founder and CEO Paul Kesserwani wrote, describing the company’s offerings as being more of a feature than a sustainable product.

DailyPay Plans to IPO

Earned wage access provider DailyPay is gearing up for an IPO this year, according to reporting from Reuters. The company is in talks with investment bankers to take the company public at a valuation between $3Bn and $4Bn. The news is the latest sign of optimism that the so-called “IPO window” may finally be opening. Other companies thought to be in the IPO pipeline include neobank Chime and BNPL lender Klarna. Still, much could change between now and any intended IPO dates, and whether or not these companies come to market (and at what valuation) could change with market conditions.

BNPL Doesn’t Hurt Credit Scores, Fair Isaac Says

A study conducted by Fair Isaac, creator of the FICO score, found that most users of buy now, pay later services would see no impact or an improvement in their credit scores if the data were to be included in the company’s scoring models. The year-long study analyzed the impact on Affirm users’ credit scores. BNPL lenders have resisted furnishing data on short-term, pay-in-four loans to the major credit bureaus, arguing that scoring models like FICO aren’t built to take into account the two-week payment cadence, small dollar amounts, and often frequent use of BNPL.