Consumer-advocacy organization Consumer Reports issued its “Fairness By Design Playbook” with expectations it can help fintechs build consumer trust. The new guide starts with the Consumer Reports thesis that what it calls fair design is not just beneficial to consumers, but can help organizations create sustainable financial products that consumers choose to use. It lists six components for fintechs and payments companies to address, including safety, privacy, transparency, support for financial well-being, and user-centricity, and inclusivity. Consumer Reports has used this framework as part of its evaluation of buy now, pay later services, mobile-banking apps, and digital wallets. In April, Consumer Reports, perhaps best known for its product-rating service, issued a report on digital wallets, including Apple Pay, Cash App, Google Pay, PayPal, Samsung Pay, and Venmo, which found differences in how each treats fraud monitoring and liability protection, among other elements. Digital-wallet backers scored a victory earlier this year when the U.S. Senate killed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule aimed at mobile wallets and designed to bring more oversight to larger providers of digital money transfers. Consumer Reports also issued a report in 2023 on BNPL services.