Weekly News Update

Payments News Update – December 8, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Lower Credit Card Transaction Fees Coming to Small Business as Canadian Agreement Reached Daily Hive – December 5, 2023 Canada has reached an agreement with Visa and Mastercard to lower credit card transaction fees for small businesses. This comes after businesses were allowed to pass the cost of credit card fees onto the consumer in October 2022. Now, The...

Payments News Update – December 1, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: UK Payment Sector Urged to Develop System to Bypass Dominant Card Networks Financial Times – November 22, 2023 (subscription required) The UK should develop ways to challenge the dominance of the big card networks and is “at risk of falling behind” other countries unless it builds an alternative to its “clunky” Faster Payment Service, according to a...

Payments News Update – November 17, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Why the CFPB Proposal for Big Techs May Affect the Entire Industry The Financial Brand – November 9, 2023 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is asserting the ability to perform examinations of major digital wallet and mobile payments providers in a regulatory proposal. This would be the first time entities like Apple Pay, Google Pay and more than a dozen...

Payments News Update – November 10, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: US Consumer Watchdog Proposes Rules for Big Tech Payments, Digital Wallets Reuters – November 7, 2023 The top U.S. consumer financial watchdog on Tuesday proposed to regulate tech giants' digital payments and smartphone wallet services, saying they rival traditional payment methods in scale and scope but lack consumer safeguards. The Consumer Financial...

Payments News Update – November 3, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: BNPL, EWA Bills Surface at House Hearing Payments Dive – October 26, 2023 A House Financial Services subcommittee has drafted legislative proposals related to earned wage access and the buy now, pay later market. The legislative proposals emerged at a Wednesday hearing of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion, titled “Modernizing...

Payments News Update – October 27, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Fed Proposes Reduction in Debit Fee Cap Payments Dive – October 25, 2023 The Federal Reserve Board voted Wednesday in favor of a proposal that would cut a cap on the interchange fee that debit card issuers can charge merchants to process a transaction. The proposal would lower the base debit fee rate by about 30% to 14.4 cents from 21 cents, according to a proposal...

Payments News Update – October 20, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Fed to Propose Lowering Debit-Card Swipe Fees The Wall Street Journal – October 17, 2023 (subscription required) The Federal Reserve is preparing a proposal that would lower the fees merchants pay to many banks when consumers shop with debit cards. Today, merchants pay large card issuers 21 cents plus 0.05% of the transaction amount, the level set by the Fed in...

Payments News Update – October 13, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Australia Unveils Draft Law to Regulate Digital Payment Providers Reuters – October 10, 2023 The Australian government said on Wednesday it planned to introduce laws that would empower the central bank to regulate digital wallet providers including Apple Pay (AAPL.O) and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google Pay. Apple Pay, Google Pay and China's WeChat Pay, which have...

Payments News Update – October 6, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Supreme Court to Consider Debit Fee Case Payments Dive – September 29, 2023 The Supreme Court on Friday granted a petition from a group of North Dakota merchants who brought a case against the Federal Reserve Board in 2021 over the central bank’s setting of a debit card fee cap. The merchants’ petition for review isn’t with respect to the merits of the...

Payments News Update – September 22, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: California Legislature Passes Plastic Gift Card Ban Payments Dive – September 21, 2023 California’s legislature has passed a bill that would outlaw plastic gift cards, with legislators in the Senate and Assembly overcoming some opposition this month in votes approving the legislation, according to the state’s legislative website. About 70% of retail gift...