Banking and Finance Law Daily Wrap Up, OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATION—Blumenthal questions Visa CEO about “X Money” payment platform venture, (Mar 10, 2025)

By A. Bryan Gerepka

According to the Connecticut senator, DOGE’s actions to diminish the enforcement reach of the CFPB could boost Visa’s new business interests with X Money.

In a letter to Visa Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Ryan McInerney, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) raised concerns about the company’s partnership with Elon Musk to launch X Money, a new peer-to-peer payment platform. In the letter, Blumenthal questioned whether X would be able to protect consumers from financial frauds and scams, alluding to X’s current inability to stem the proliferation of bots and scams on its site. “As the largest payment processor in the world, Visa has a legal responsibility to ensure its network is free of financial crime such as scams and fraud, money-laundering, terrorist financing, and more,” Blumenthal said.

On Jan. 28, 2025, X Corp. (formerly known as Twitter) announced a partnership with Visa to launch X Money, a payment platform that would provide X users with access to a mobile wallet and offer them the ability to make peer-to-peer (P2P) payments.

Blumenthal, who is the Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (the Subcommittee), also raised potential conflict of interest concerns about the X, Visa partnership. According to Blumenthal, Musk, in his capacity as leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is one of X Money’s key regulators, and gained access to sensitive data that could give X Money visibility into its competitors’ trade secrets, corporate strategy, and pending licenses. “DOGE’s actions to diminish the enforcement reach of the CFPB could boost Visa’s new business interests with X Money,” he added. Equally troubling is the possibility that DOGE and Mr. Musk could use their access to CFPB’s systems to gain a competitive advantage for Mr. Musk’s business interests, in particular X Money

The senator asked Visa to provide the following information and records to the Subcommittee by March 21, 2025.

1. A detailed description of Visa’s plans to offer X Money to consumers in collaboration with X.

2. A detailed description of all measures undertaken by Visa to determine whether any Visa or X personnel have obtained sensitive data or other non-public information about other peer-to-peer platforms from any personnel at DOGE or the CFPB.

3. All records referring or relating to agreements between Visa and X pertaining to X Money, including any letters of intent, memoranda of understanding, service agreements, or any other records.

4. All of Visa’s policies and procedures for preventing the improper use or disclosure of confidential information of competitors.

5. All of Visa’s policies and procedures for deterring and detecting criminal activity on peer-to-peer payment applications, including but not limited to X Money.

6. All communications referring or relating to X Money between any Visa personnel and X personnel, including but not limited to Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of X, Elon Musk.

7. All communications referring or relating to X Money between Visa personnel and CFPB personnel.

8. All communications referring or relating to X Money between Visa personnel and DOGE personnel, the Trump administration, or the Trump transition team since Nov. 5, 2024.

Blumenthal has written to all of Musk six companies, urging them to preserve records related to government activities and potential conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of Musk’s role in the administration. According to Blumenthal, Musk’s companies—including X—have refused to commit to preserving these records and have failed to address Musk’s glaring conflicts of interest.

Companies: Visa; X Corp.

LegislativeActivity: BankSecrecyAct CFPB ConsumerCredit CreditDebitGiftCards FinancialIntermediaries FinTech OversightInvestigations