Payments News Update – December 19, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT: Walmart, Other Retailers Object to Visa and Mastercard Settlement
Reuters – December 15, 2025
Major retailers and trade groups are urging a federal judge in Brooklyn to reject a proposed antitrust settlement with Visa and Mastercard, saying the deal lets the card giants keep charging merchants excessive fees for credit card transactions and offers them few benefits.
Walmart said in an objection filed on Friday that the deal, hatched by a group of small local merchants, “offers no meaningful relief” for large national merchants and forces them to release antitrust claims for eight years.
The company said the settlement failed to dismantle a rule that requires merchants to accept all Visa or Mastercard credit cards, from all bank issuers, if they accept any of them. . . .
Retailer Groups Urge Federal Reserve to Adopt Swipe Fee Decrease
Convenience Store News – December 18, 2025
Retailer groups and trade associations are urging the Federal Reserve to turn down banks’ latest request that the agency drop a proposal to reduce the billions of dollars in swipe fees big banks charge to process debit card transactions.
Last week the American Bankers Association (ABA) and other banking groups asked the Fed to withdraw its proposal to reduce the 2011 regulated rate for debit card swipe fees “while it awaits further clarity from the courts and considers more current data.” The request was at least the sixth attempt by banks to delay the proposal since it was released in 2023.
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) encouraged the Fed to finally adopt the reduction instead, citing there is no need to wait for court action or for new data. . . .
Amex CEO Slams Surcharges
Payments Dive – December 16, 2025
Increased merchant surcharges on purchases made with American Express credit cards would be “bad” for consumers, Amex’s CEO said at an investor conference last week.
American Express CEO Steve Squeri addressed the possibility of Amex cards facing more surcharges when he spoke Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference, after he was asked about it during an interview with a conference host.
The question came in the wake of a proposed lawsuit settlement by rival card networks Visa and Mastercard with merchants in October that could result in more surcharging by merchants when consumers present premium cards. Amex was not a party to the settlement. . . .
PayPal Seeks Bank Charter
Banking Dive – December 16, 2025
PayPal has applied with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to establish a Utah-chartered industrial loan company, according to a press release Monday.
The digital payments pioneer said it’s seeking the charter so it can expand the financial services it offers to U.S. small businesses under a proposed PayPal Bank brand. The company has extended $30 billion in loans and working capital to small businesses, but this move would let it knock third parties out of some arrangements.
“Establishing PayPal Bank will strengthen our business and improve our efficiency, enabling us to better support small business growth and economic opportunities across the U.S.,” PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said in the release. . . .
Crypto Kingpins Circle and Ripple Are Approved for National Trust Banks
Digital Transactions News – December 15, 2025
Two major players in stablecoins, Circle Internet Financial Inc. and Ripple Labs Inc., received conditional approval Friday from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish national trust banks.
Both companies coveted the approvals as key to establishing confidence in stablecoins among consumers and businesses as they begin to use and accept the tokens and as regulations emerge to clarify their use. “The conditional approval of our trust bank charter represents a massive step forward…setting the highest standard for stablecoin compliance# with both federal and state oversight,” said Brad Garlinghouse, chief executive at San Francisco-based Ripple, in a statement.
The approvals also come as digital currencies like stablecoins have captured the imagination of businesses and lawmakers, a point not lost on the two companies following the OCC’s action. . . .
BNPL Loan Values Rise, CFPB Says
Payments Dive – December 15, 2025
The size of buy now, pay later loans has increased as more U.S. consumers rely on them, according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau study released last week.
The average dollar value of a BNPL loan grew to $848 in 2023 from $745 in 2022, a 14% increase, the agency’s research found.
The bureau unveiled the study — which looked at buy now, pay later loans in 2022 and 2023 — on its website Wednesday with little fanfare. . . .
Visa Escapes Investor Suit Over DOJ Claims
Law360 – December 11, 2025 (subscription required)
A California federal judge has released Visa from a securities fraud suit accusing it of concealing anticompetitive debit practices that are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the plaintiffs did not show that Visa’s alleged omissions caused investors losses.
U.S. District Judge Noel Wise signed an order Wednesday granting Visa’s motion to dismiss the suit. The complaint does not support a plausible inference of loss causation considering that the “modest” stock price drop last year was followed by a “quick” recovery, the judge said.
In the suit, the investors alleged that Visa’s shares fell 6% on Sept. 24, 2024, in response to reports that the DOJ planned to take action against Visa for antitrust violations, according to the order. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT: Visa Moves to Support Stablecoins for U.S. Settlement
Digital Transactions News – December 16, 2025
Visa Inc. announced early Tuesday it is supporting stablecoins as a settlement option for issuer and acquirer banks in the United States, a major move in payment card finance and one observers see as an inevitable next step for the industry, though one that could come with complications.
The use of stablecoins will make settlement “potentially faster, more convenient, and cheaper,” notes Eric Grover, principal at the payments advisory Intrepid Ventures. Now, he adds, “here we have the biggest [payments] network in the world putting its imprimatur on stablecoin settlement. That’s a certification, an endorsement, if you will.”
The potential downside, though, could lie in how well the broader merchant, acquirer, and banking world understands stablecoins and how fast they will adopt them. . . .
Visa Launches Stablecoins Advisory Practice for Banks and Businesses
PYMNTS – December 15, 2025
Visa has announced the launch of its Stablecoins Advisory Practice that serves banks, FinTechs, merchants and businesses of all sizes.
The global practice is a value-added service offering by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) and provides actionable insights and recommendations to help clients with things like market fit, strategy and implementation of stablecoins technology, the company said in a Monday (Dec. 15) press release emailed to PYMNTS.
Its offerings include stablecoin training and market trend programs, including a new Visa University course; stablecoin strategy development and market entry planning; use case sizing and go-to-market planning; and technology enablement for stablecoins integration, according to the release. . . .
2026 Will Be the Year of AI-Assisted Shopping, Visa Exec Says
Bloomberg – December 12, 2025 (subscription may be required)
Artificial intelligence-assisted shopping will become more common next year, as alliances between payments and AI firms are forming to shape the increasingly competitive landscape, according to a Visa Inc. executive.
Oliver Jenkyn, group president for global markets, anticipates 2026 will be the year that shopping via chatbots is fully embraced. The feature — introduced in 2025 — helps consumers browse and complete purchases when prompted.
“In 2026, we’re going to have full mainstream of AI-supported shopping, where I’m doing some of my shopping, I’m doing it in ChatGPT, I’m doing it in one of the other platforms, and it’s helping me,” Jenkyn said. . . .
Walmart Is One of the Last Major Retailers That Still Doesn’t Accept Apple Pay. It Probably Won’t Anytime Soon, Either.
Business Insider – December 11, 2025
Walmart has maintained its stance on avoiding NFC-based payments, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Other major retailers have increasingly accepted the tech as the norm.
Walmart, meanwhile, offers its own contactless payment options that give it some key advantages. . . .