Payments News Update – June 20, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
Payments Dive – June 17, 2025
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has delayed implementation of the Illinois Fee Prohibition Act, a first-in-the-nation law that aims to ban card issuers and their networks from charging merchants interchange fees on taxes and tips when consumers pay with credit and debit cards.
Pritzker, a Democrat, signed an amendment Monday after the legislature passed a brief amendment on June 1 that delays the effective date of the law by one year to July 1, 2026.
Bank and payments industry groups, including the Electronic Transactions Association, hailed the postponement as a win, following a lawsuit to halt the new law by some organizations. “We thank the Governor for his leadership in delaying the effective date,” ETA CEO Jodie Kelley said in a Monday press release. “His action today gives the court time to make permanent its preliminary injunction.”. . .
CNBC – June 17, 2025
The Senate on Tuesday passed the GENIUS Act, a landmark bill that for the first time establishes federal guardrails for U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins and creates a regulated pathway for private companies to issue digital dollars with the blessing of the federal government.
The bill passed with a 68-30 vote.
It’s a milestone day for the crypto industry, which put around $250 million into the 2024 cycle to elect what’s now considered to be the most pro-crypto Congress in U.S. history, and for President Donald Trump’s sprawling digital asset empire. . . .
Banking Dive – June 17, 2025
The Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday proposed taking new actions to address payments fraud, especially paper check fraud, suggesting increased agency collaboration, more industry education and improved supervision.
The regulators offered their request for public comment over the next 90 days, saying in a joint press release that they would also look for ways to work with state regulatory agencies.
“Today’s interagency announcement is a welcome first step in the efforts of the federal banking agencies to combat the increasing occurrence of fraud, particularly check fraud,” the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, Michelle Bowman, said in a statement. “While this has been a well-known problem for several years, efforts by regulators have been slow to advance, and seem to have done little to address this growing threat.” . . .
Bloomberg – June 14, 2025 (subscription may be required)
Stablecoins have become one of the hottest buzzwords in the world of finance as of late with US lawmakers on the cusp of passing the first guidelines for mainstream use of the cryptocurrencies designed to mirror the dollar.
Everyone from banks to securities firms to fintech startups are experimenting with the tokens as a means of making payment systems faster and cheaper. That apparently even includes Walmart Inc. and even Amazon.com Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
But for most retailers, stablecoins are more likely the newest avenue to gain traction for themselves in a long-running dispute with the likes of Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. over the fees merchants pay to accept consumer cards. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
The Wall Street Journal – June 13, 2025 (subscription may be required)
Some of the biggest merchants are exploring how to issue or use stablecoins, potentially shifting the high volumes of cash and card transactions that they handle outside the traditional financial system and saving them billions of dollars in fees.
Walmart, Amazon.com and other multinational giants have recently explored whether to issue their own stablecoins in the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.
Expedia Group and other large companies such as airlines have also discussed potential efforts to issue stablecoins, some of the people said. . . .
Digital Transactions News – June 18, 2025
Fiserv Inc. announced late Tuesday it will begin offering Paze, the online-payment system from Early Warning Services LLC, to financial institutions. Fiserv will, in addition, support Paze across its e-commerce payments platform.
The collaboration with Fiserv is expected to help Paze significantly expand its reach to banks and credit unions of all sizes, Early Warning says. Currently, seven of the nation’s largest banks, including Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, PNC, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo, support Paze. The same seven financial institutions own Early Warning.
Paze, which launched in 2023 and began rolling out across the United States last year, allows consumers to make online purchases without sharing card numbers with merchants. . . .
Money – June 11, 2025
As Americans rack up record levels of household debt, the juggernaut that is buy now, pay later is quietly growing. Fifteen percent of consumers now say they have used the trendy installment plans to pay for items ranging from DoorDash meals to Coachella tickets.
The newest development? Last week, Klarna and PayPal separately announced new cobranded cards designed to expand their historically virtual BNPL plans into everyday shopping — both online and in stores.
But as BNPL plans become increasingly embedded in people’s daily spending habits, so does the risk of accumulating debt. Making it easier to break up payments — even on small purchases — may blur the lines between a budgeting tool and debt trap, especially for those already on a financial tightrope. . . .