Payments News Update – July 18, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
Reuters – July 15, 2025
Australia’s central bank on Tuesday proposed to scrap surcharges on most debit and credit card payments for consumers while lowering interchange fees paid by businesses, steps it estimated would save the two groups around A$2.4 billion ($1.57 billion) a year.
In a consultation paper on the proposals, the Reserve Bank of Australia said surcharges and fees were no longer in the public interest and invited feedback from interested parties by August 26.
The RBA judged that surcharges on debit and credit cards, including Mastercard and Visa, no longer achieved the intended purpose of steering consumers to make more efficient payment choices. . . .
The New York Times – July 16, 2025 (subscription may be required)
It was supposed to be “crypto week” on Capitol Hill.
Republicans in the House of Representatives had scheduled back-to-back votes this week on three bills supported by the cryptocurrency industry, a suite of legislation with the potential to cement crypto’s status as a cornerstone of mainstream commerce. There were crypto ads in major newspapers, crypto billboards at local bus stops across Washington and even crypto-themed chocolate bars in Capitol vending machines.
Then the industry’s plans started to unravel. . . .
PYMNTS – July 11, 2025
In March, the White House handed down an executive order mandating that the federal government will stop issuing paper checks for disbursements, effective Sept. 30, and will stop accepting them for payments “as soon as practicable.” . . .
The commentary period related to the executive order, which was formally titled “Modernizing Payments to and From America’s Bank Account,” is closed. Amid the 248 responses, payment networks and several fintechs weighed in on the ways and means by which the government might modernize its payment efforts. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
Bloomberg – July 16, 2025 (subscription may be required)
Mastercard Inc. is joining the competition for big spenders, announcing a higher-yet tier of rewards card designed to help banks challenge offerings from Chase, American Express and Capital One, among others.
The company plans to debut the World Legend category with one of the firm’s largest US partners before the end of September, according to Bunita Sawhney, Mastercard’s chief consumer product officer.
It is joining an increasingly crowded field, as issuers sharpen their focus on the small, high-income cohort of US consumers that account for the majority of the country’s spending. . . .
Payments Dive – July 15, 2025
Financial technology companies assailed a move by JPMorgan Chase to begin assessing fees for access to customer financial data.
The move likely foreshadows stricter control over consumer data by large banks if a federal court rejects a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that was aimed at opening up access to data.
JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, has been sending notices the past two weeks to data aggregators notifying them of new fees for data access. A new breed of fintechs is eager to use that data to compete with banks to provide financial services. . . .
Digital Transactions News – July 15, 2025
Chargebacks cost U.S. merchants more than $170 billion annually, according to Chargebacks911’s 2025 Cardholder Dispute Index.
The average dollar value of a transaction disputed with a consumer’s bank over the prior 12 months was $84, a 10.5% increase from 2024. The top reason for chargebacks is unauthorized transactions on a consumer’s billing statement. Indeed, more than 55% of consumers surveyed cited unauthorized transactions as the primary reason to dispute a purchase.
Attempting, but failing, to reach a merchant about a questionable transaction is the second most popular reason for disputing a transaction, cited by 41.2% of respondents. . . .
The Green Sheet – July 14, 2025
Both Visa and Mastercard have incentive interchange to encourage acquirers to provide additional details with their transactions. This enhanced data, referred to as Level 2 or Level 3 data, was introduced back in the 1990s to allow the card networks to better serve the B2B or commercial market and compete with American Express.
All transactions contain Level 1 data. Level 2 requirements are less onerous and Level 3 the most comprehensive. A table of the data Levels is provided in a sidebar to this article.
Visa is overhauling its Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP) by inserting a non-interchange pass-through fee (NIPTF) for participation and making it more difficult to qualify for Level 2 and Level 3 interchange rates. In April 2025, Visa launched a phased rollout of its new version of the CEDP, which introduces significant changes to Level 2 and Level 3 programs. . . .
Payments Dive – July 10, 2025
For years, Elon Musk has ballyhooed X plans for a new payments tool, with the social media company’s CEO Linda Yaccarino leading the way. But now she’s out. “After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” she said in a post Wednesday on the company’s site.
Since the billionaire purchased the former Twitter business for $44 billion in October 2022, Musk has been talking about expanding the platform into payments with a digital wallet. Yaccarino crowed in January about making X into an “everything app” for consumers. . . .