Very interesting...

California Is Rethinking The Financial Regulations That Are Driving Payments Startups Crazy

teaser:

... Commissioner Teveia Barnes, an experienced lawyer who has run the Department of Financial Institutions since early last year, told the State Assembly's Committee on Banking and Finance that the law was needed to protect consumers.

"Money transmitters are asking permission from the state to hold other people's money - hundreds of thousands of dollars - for some period of time," she said. "I view the holding of other people's money in the same vein as holding bank deposits and holding credit-union deposits.... I don't consider these as barriers to entry. I think they're consumer protections."