With the end of votes Thursday, it became official: A Republican attempt to erase the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's prepaid card rule had run out of time. The effort failed to come up for a vote before the close of the Congressional Review Act's 60-legislative-day window to undo an agency regulation.

Sen. David Perdue, R-Georgia, targeted the rule, which calls for requiring prepaid card companies—a burgeoning industry—to provide easy access to account information and limit consumer losses from fraudulent purchases, among other measures. But his bill wasn't able to ride the wave of successful resolutions that voided rules rolled out in the final months of the Obama administration.

Could the failure of Perdue's bill embolden the CFPB to finalize its arbitration rule, at the risk of seeing Congress nix its proposal to ban forced-arbitration clauses that prevent consumers from filing class actions? “It shows the CFPB arbitration fight is going to be a knockdown, drag-out event, and we're ready to defend the rule,” said Amanda Werner, the arbitration campaign manager for Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform.

The Georgia-based Total System Services and its subsidiary Netspend emerged as the leading opponents of the rule. A provision in the rule requires prepaid card companies to check a consumer's creditworthiness when offering overdraft services. Netspend argued the rule would effectively prevent it from continuing to offer overdraft services.

The CFPB recently delayed the rule's effective date from October 2017 to April 2018. Scott Talbott, the Electronic Transactions Association's senior vice president of government affairs, described the delay as encouraging. Talbott, whose group's membership includes Total System Services, had supported Perdue's bill. “We recognize that it is a blunt tool,” he said, referring to the Congressional Review Act. “But at that point, that was the only tool left to address the concerns with the final regulation.”

Here's a roundup of some other big regulatory action this week:

Anthem's breakup anxiety

Anthem Inc. on Friday said it was dropping its $54 billion bid to acquire rival Cigna Corp. after a judge in Delaware refused to stop Cigna from walking away from the blockbuster merger. Anthem then upped the conflict: The Indiana-based health insurer said it will refuse to pay a $1.85 billion breakup fee to Cigna.

Anthem said in a statement Friday: “In light of yesterday's decision and Cigna's refusal to support the merger, however, Anthem has delivered to Cigna a notice terminating the merger agreement. Cigna has failed to perform and comply in all material respects with its contractual obligations. As a result, Cigna is not entitled to a termination fee. On the contrary, Cigna's repeated willful breaches of the merger agreement and its successful sabotage of the transaction has caused Anthem to suffer massive damages, claims which Anthem intends to vigorously pursue against Cigna.”

Cigna's response: “Anthem was required under the merger agreement to lead the regulatory approval process and to use its reasonable best efforts to obtain regulatory approval. As Cigna has stated, it believes that Anthem willfully breached those obligations and as a result the transaction did not receive the requisite regulatory approvals. Cigna seeks prompt payment of the $1.85 billion reverse termination fee and will pursue our claims for additional damages of over $13 billion against Anthem for the harm that it caused Cigna and its shareholders.”

Anthem, represented by White & Case, earlier failed to convince a Washington judge to bless the merger deal, which U.S. Justice Department antitrust lawyers said would undermine competition in the health insurance market. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in April—dividing 2-1—upheld an injunction that blocked the merger. A team from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison represented Cigna in the antitrust case in D.C.

The cool Richard Cordray

Republicans and leading business advocates have never had any love for Richard Cordray, the director of the Obama-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “I don't take any of it personally,” Cordray tells the Los Angeles Times in an interview in California. Cordray was in town for a hearing on lending to small businesses.

Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Cordray was asked about this remark from Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, when he rolled out a bill to overhaul the Dodd-Frank financial reform law: “I can't do a good James Brown, but I feel good.” Cordray told the L.A. Times: “I'm more inclined toward easy listening, such as the Mamas and the Papas.”

We also know Cordray's a fan of Bob Dylan. Months ago he invoked Dylan lyrics—from the song “Forever Young”—to lift spirits at the agency.