Payments News Update – July 25, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
Bloomberg Law – July 18, 2025
At least one political appointee at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is raising concerns about fees JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to charge data aggregators and financial technology companies for accessing customer data.
The official, in conversations with fintechs, is probing whether the agency’s bid to kill a Biden-era open banking rule in court may have opened the door for the charges, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation who asked to remain anonymous to discuss internal deliberations.
The CFPB’s rule barred banks from imposing the charges, in a bid to make it easier for people to use third-party payment companies such as PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo service and online investment firm Betterment. . . .
Payments Dive – July 22, 2025
American consumers will pay $6 million more annually for goods and services as merchants round up prices to account for the fading availability of the U.S. penny after it’s no longer minted next year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond estimated in a report this month.
“As pennies phase out, businesses are likely to round cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents, resulting in a ‘rounding tax,’” the Fed bank’s report said.
The additional collective cost to Americans is still less than the $85.3 million the federal government lost last year on production of some three billion new pennies, according to the report. . . .
Nikkei Asia – July 22, 2025
Japan’s antitrust watchdog said Tuesday it had told Visa Worldwide Pte Ltd. to reform its business practices after concluding that the firm restricted and pressured card companies to use its credit information system.
It marks the first administrative action taken by the Japan Fair Trade Commission against a credit card company. The commission said global credit card brand Visa Inc.’s Singaporean unit, which manages the Asia-Pacific region including Japan, had charged higher fees to other credit card firms that did not use its network to check credit information.
The commission said the Visa unit has submitted plans to improve its practices, adding that it has accepted the plans. . . .
Law360 – July 18, 2025 (subscription required)
Harcus Parker is preparing a new class action on behalf of retailers allegedly overcharged by Visa and Mastercard for accepting debit and credit card payments after a tribunal ruled that the transactions fees breach U.K. competition law.
The law firm revealed late on Thursday that it will soon file a new claim, which will state that more businesses should be compensated for paying so-called multilateral interchange fees, or MIFs, which are paid by businesses to their banks to accept payment by credit or debit cards. It is estimated that the claim could be worth up to £3 billion ($4 billion).
News of the fresh claim emerges after the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled in favor of hundreds of merchants in separate claims against Visa and Mastercard. . . .
Associated Press – July 18, 2025
President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law new regulations for a type of cryptocurrency, a major milestone for an industry that has spent heavily to strengthen its legitimacy and political might.
The GENIUS Act sets initial guardrails and consumer protections for stablecoins, which are tied to assets like the U.S. dollar to reduce price volatility compared with other forms of cryptocurrency. It passed both the House and Senate with wide bipartisan margins.
The new law is meant to bolster consumer confidence in the crypto industry, which has quickly become a major power player in Washington thanks to massive campaign donations and spending on lobbying. . . .
CU Today – July 17, 2025
In a significant shift that could have major implications for the credit union industry, House Republican leaders have agreed to attach the Anti-CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) Surveillance State Act to the must-pass FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)—a move that has raised alarm bells within the Defense Credit Union Council, which became aware of the decision on Thursday.
Jason Stverak, DCUC’s chief advocacy officer, told CUToday.info the move sets a precedent that could pave the way for other unrelated financial legislation—most notably, the controversial Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA)—to be added to the NDAA as well.
“For years, one of the effective arguments against attaching the Marshall-Durbin bill to the NDAA has been the need for a clean defense bill,” said Stverak. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
The Paypers – July 23, 2025
PayPal has rolled out AI-enabled, dynamic scam detection for PayPal and Venmo Friends and Family payments, aiming to scale protection for customers across the globe.
Developed to proactively alert customers in case of potential scams and prevent losses in real time, the newly added alerts intervene before any funds are sent.
With scammers working on coercing individuals into sending payments that may not be eligible for refunds, including scams that originate on social media, PayPal intends to equip customers with more information and allow them to stop scams before they happen. . . .
PYMNTS – July 23, 2025
Square is letting the first merchants on its network accept bitcoin payments.
The company is now allowing some sellers to accept Lightning Network-powered BTC payments from customers, Owen Jennings, executive officer and head of business at Square’s parent company, Block, wrote in a Tuesday (July 22) post on social platform X.
“Today we’re onboarding our first few Square sellers for the new native bitcoin acceptance experience,” he wrote. “This is the way!” . . .
TechCrunch – July 22, 2025
PayPal announced Wednesday it has partnered with global wallet companies to create a platform called PayPal World that is designed to make cross-border commerce easier. The platform will allow users to pay others using their local wallets and payment systems.
The company said the launch partners include India’s NPCI International Payments Limited, which operates mobile payments framework UPI (Unified Payment Interface); China’s Tenpay Global (Tencent’s payment arm), which operates the Weixin (WeChat) payment ecosystem in the country; PayPal; and Venmo.
The company has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Latin America’s Mercado Pago, a fintech company that enables card and mobile payments, while the final details of the deals are being ironed out. . . .
Payments Dive – July 17, 2025
Visa and Mastercard, the two biggest U.S. card networks, are eager to tout the benefits they may gain from the advance of stablecoins and dismiss the threat those cryptocurrencies pose.
As stablecoin legislation has advanced in Congress the possibility has increased that these cryptocurrencies will soon have a legal framework in the U.S.
As a result, businesses are rushing to embrace the new digital currency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar. . . .
Digital Transactions News – July 17, 2025
Tapping a buy now, pay later app to acquire a new couch or pair of shoes means more decisions for consumers beyond choosing how to fund the purchase. A new report from Incogni Inc., a data-monitoring service, suggests they also need to be mindful of the quantity and type of data they share with BNPL apps.
In the report, Incogni found that Afterpay, the BNPL service owned by Block Inc., collected 20 different types of user data, with Klarna and Uplift gathering 19. Types of data points that are shared with third parties by various BNPL providers include precise location, name, address, phone number, and credit scores. Some apps collect Web-browsing history, purchase history, and photos.
BNPL providers such as Afterpay disclose they collect this personal information and their reasons for doing so. . . .
Fortune – July 16, 2025 (subscription may be required)
When JPMorgan Chase told fintechs last month that it planned to charge them for accessing its customer banking account data, it sent shockwaves through corners of the financial industry. According to four industry executives, the move is a blow to the fintech sector and could prove devastating to early-stage startups, including those in the crypto industry. Analysts, however, think mature fintechs like PayPal and Block will likely not feel much consequence from this fee change.
Under the plan, every time a consumer moves money from JPMorgan Chase to a crypto account or a third-party service like Robinhood, the bank could charge the data aggregators a fee. Crypto firms and fintechs typically use aggregators, like Plaid or MX, to access customer accounts at major financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase. Up to now, the banks have not charged the fintechs, but this may change. The aggregators are widely expected to pass the new fees onto their fintech customers, with some potentially transferring the costs to the consumer. . . .