Payments News Update – November 14, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
Payments Dive – November 10, 2025
Visa and Mastercard have agreed to end their longstanding “honor all cards” rule and temporarily lower interchange fees as part of a settlement agreement announced Monday that could conclude 20 years of litigation over how much merchants pay the card networks and banks.
Under the proposed settlement, merchants will have the right to decline some higher-cost Visa and Mastercard-branded credit cards and will gain new rights to add surcharges for accepting some cards.
The agreement would temporarily cap posted credit interchange rates for five years, including keeping rates for standard consumer cards at 1.25% through the pact’s eight-year term, starting with the court’s approval. Visa and Mastercard said the settlement also would lower the “combined average effective credit interchange rate by ten basis points” for five years. . . .
Politico – November 11, 2025
The Trump administration has formally determined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s current funding mechanism is unlawful, a move that puts the agency on track to close in the coming months when its existing cash runs out.
The decision, disclosed in a court filing late Monday, marks the administration’s most direct effort yet to dismantle the consumer watchdog and sets up a new front in the ongoing legal battle over its future. The administration said it now considers the CFPB legally barred from seeking additional money from the Federal Reserve, which is the agency’s typical source of funding.
In the filing, the CFPB said it has enough money to last “at least” through the end of the year but “anticipates exhausting its currently available funds in early 2026.” . . .
Law360 – November 6, 2025 (subscription required)
PayPal has for a second time beat a proposed class action accusing it of illegally boosting online retail prices with restrictive merchant agreements, but the consumers have one more chance to amend.
In an order Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White agreed with PayPal that the consumers still have not shown it has market power within the e-commerce market, giving them until Dec. 12 to file a second amended version of the suit.
Although the consumers said PayPal has market power indirectly by asserting it is accepted by 82% of the top 1,000 e-commerce merchants, PayPal said the suit cannot impute market power to it by aggregating its agreements with merchants. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
The Wall Street Journal – November 5, 2025 (subscription may be required)
The real price of a premium credit card isn’t the three-digit annual fee. For some, it’s the hours spent in spreadsheets trying to get their money’s worth. . . .
Premium cards are pitched as keys to a world of luxury, with airport lounges, exclusive shopping credits and personal concierges. Most U.S. consumers pay more in credit-card interest than they get in rewards. But for the few who try to take advantage of everything they are entitled to, the cards can feel more like a part-time job than a lifestyle upgrade.
That job has been getting harder lately. . . .
TechCrunch – November 12, 2025
Apple Watch and iPhone owners in the United States will now be able to carry a copy of their U.S. passport on their device, which they can then use at TSA checkpoints across more than 250 U.S. airports when traveling domestically.
The feature, known as Digital ID, was previously announced as part of the iOS 26 release, and adds passports to the list of existing government IDs supported in Apple Wallet. The company has rolled out the feature to a dozen states and Puerto Rico, with more on the way.
Using Digital ID in Apple Wallet, users can create and present an ID, even if they don’t have a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or state ID. The ID does not replace a physical passport, and it’s not currently supported for international travel or crossing borders, Apple notes. . . .
PYMNTS – November 12, 2025
Traditional cross-border payment systems weren’t built for today’s global workforce. Millions of creators, freelancers and on-demand workers now expect to be paid instantly. And in many countries with volatile fiat currencies, they want that payment in digital dollars. These micropreneurs don’t want to wait days for transfers or lose money to fees to accelerate their paydays.
Their expectations for speed, flexibility and transparency are exposing just how out of step existing banking infrastructure has become for this new segment of worker.
It’s even leading to a shift in how money moves, with Visa, the world’s largest payment network, piloting a feature that allows creators and gig workers to receive payments in dollar-backed stablecoins directly into their wallets. . . .