Page 6 - April 24, 2025 Bulletin

aRTiCLeS

President Directs Agencies to Use Health Savings Account Assets
Supreme Court Decisions to Rescind Grew In 2024
‘Unlawful’ Regulations Health savings account assets expanded significantly in 2024 in

President Trump has issued a memo directing agency heads to move part because of favorable stock market conditions, according to a
forward with drafting a list of “unlawful and potentially unlawful new report by HSA investment solution provider Devenir. HSA
regulations” and take steps to immediately repeal them. assets reached nearly $147 billion across more than 39 million
accounts, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 19% for assets
In the memo, Trump cites his February executive order in which and 5% for accounts.
he directed agencies to draft a list of allegedly unlawful regulations
within 60 days and begin plans to repeal them. To guide that Devenir also found that HSA investment assets increased by
effort, the memo lists 10 U.S. Supreme Court cases the agencies 38%, reaching $64 billion by the end of 2024. The number of
should use to determine which regulations should be repealed. “In HSA holders choosing to invest also rose with approximately 3.5
recent years, the Supreme Court has issued a series of decisions million HSAs, representing about 9% of all accounts, investing a
that recognize appropriate constitutional boundaries on the power portion of their HSA dollars.
of unelected bureaucrats and that restore checks on unlawful Account holders contributed almost $56 billion to their accounts
agency actions,” the memo states. “Yet, despite these critical course in 2024, up 11% from the previous year, according to the report.
corrections, unlawful regulations – often promulgated in reliance on They withdrew $42 billion during the same period, up 10% from
now-superseded Supreme Court decisions – remain on the books.” the prior year. The average total balance for HSA investment
Trump also exempted the repeals from public notice and comment accounts was $22,032.
requirements, citing an Administration Procedure Act clause Read more: https://www.devenir.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-
that allows for exemptions when taking comment would be Year-End-Devenir-HSA-Research-Report-Executive-Summary.pdf
“impracticable, unnecessary or contrary to the public interest.”
Agencies have the legal authority to immediately repeal unlawful Most Fraud Losses Attributable to
regulations, according to the memo. Debit Card, Check Fraud
Read more: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-
actions/2025/04/directing-the-repeal-of-unlawful-regulations/ A Federal Reserve survey of risk officers at financial institutions
found that debit card fraud drove fraud losses at those
FinCEN Issues Analysis of Fentanyl- institutions in 2024, followed closely by check fraud.
Related BSA Reports The number of financial institutions that experienced attempted
check fraud grew by 10% from 2023 to 2024, followed by
Last year, financial institutions filed 1,246 Bank Secrecy Act attempted automated clearing house fraud at 9% and debit card
reports that identified suspected fentanyl-related activity fraud at 6%. However, debit card fraud accounted for 39% of
amounting to approximately $1.4 billion in suspicious fraud losses last year, followed by check fraud at 30%. ACH fraud
transactions, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in accounted for 9% of losses while credit card fraud accounted for
a financial trend analysis. 5%. The remaining losses were attributable to other payment
methods – such as wire transfers and nonbank apps – although
The FinCEN review found that depository institutions and
money services businesses in the U.S. accounted for 57% and instant and real-time payments saw low to no reported losses.
32% of fentanyl-related BSA reports, respectively. Mexico and Financial institutions reported increases in check fraud events
China were the top two foreign countries identified in subject involving counterfeit checks, check washing and payee forgery,
address fields of BSA reports analyzed, according to the agency. according to the report. Events involving kiting, float and
Nearly 32% of Mexico-based subjects were concentrated in the paperhanging all decreased, “suggesting cooperative industry
Mexican states of Sinaloa and Jalisco. efforts are reducing risk and losses.”
Domestic sales of fentanyl appear to be conducted primarily Read more: https://www.frbservices.org/binaries/content/assets/
through cash and peer-to-peer transfers, FinCEN said. BSA crsocms/news/research/2024-risk-officer-survey-results.pdf
reports involving convertible virtual currency transactions
primarily identified bitcoin payments, including in suspected
darknet marketplace drug sales.
Read more: https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/
FinCEN-FTA-Fentanyl.pdf

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