Payments News Update – October 10, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
Law360 – October 3, 2025 (subscription required)
A coalition of major retail and restaurant trade associations has urged the leaders of congressional banking committees to quickly enact national legislation for cash transaction rounding in light of the end of U.S. penny production.
In their Wednesday letter, the groups said the end of penny production has led to fundamental changes requiring immediate legislation in order to avoid a “looming crisis.”
Austen Jensen, senior executive vice president of public affairs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said in a statement that retailers are “key partners with our communities, whether that is through the [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] or serving the unbanked.”. . .
ABA Banking Journal – October 7, 2025
The Federal Reserve yesterday appealed a federal court ruling striking down Regulation II’s standard for setting debit interchange fees.
A group of North Dakota retailer trade associations and truck stop Corner Post sued the Fed in 2021 on the grounds that, in Reg II, the Fed allegedly exceeded its statutory authority to set interchange fees that are “reasonable and proportional to the cost incurred by the issuer with respect to the transaction.”
In an August ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor sided with the plaintiffs . . . .
Banking Dive – October 6, 2025
Coinbase is pursuing a trust charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the cryptocurrency exchange said Friday.
Securing the charter would allow Coinbase to launch new products beyond crypto custody, including payments and other services, with the assurance of regulatory clarity, wrote Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s vice president of institutional product, in the blog post.
Coinbase “has no intention of becoming a bank,” Tusar wrote. But the company believes “clear rules and the trust of our regulators and customers enable Coinbase to confidently innovate while ensuring proper oversight and security.” . . .
Payments Dive – October 3, 2025
Digital payments processor Checkout.com has submitted its application for a banking charter to the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, the company said Friday.
The U.K.-based firm is seeking Georgia’s merchant acquirer limited purpose bank charter to facilitate its U.S. expansion and gain direct access to the payment networks of behemoths Visa and Mastercard.
If the bid is successful, Checkout.com would be the third payments firm – after Fiserv and Stripe – with a Georgia special purpose banking charter. The charter allows payments processors to bypass banks to underwrite merchants, authorize and settle transactions, and provide network access to its affiliates. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
The Paypers – October 6, 2025
Payments consultancy CMSPI has released its second edition of the State of the Industry Report (SOIR). The report is created in partnership with the Insights Advisory Council (IAC), a team of global business thought leaders from Amazon, Best Buy, Etsy, Google, iHerb, Kroger, lululemon, McDonald’s, Shell, Sony, Target, and Walmart. We sat down with Callum Godwin, CMSPI’s Chief Economist, to discuss the inspiration for the report and its key findings.
This year’s State of the Industry Report looks quite different from last year’s inaugural edition. What’s changed?
Last year’s edition focused very much on what payments are today; we felt like there was a gap in the market for a merchant-centric industry report and had the idea of producing an annual State of the Industry Report that would address the concerns of our global merchant clients. Our second edition focuses more on the future of payments – innovation, technological advancement, and digital payments. . . .
Payments Roundup – October 2025
The Payments Roundup team has published their latest merchant-focused quarterly payments newsletter.
Stories this quarter cover topics including Agentic AI, ACH, payment card acceptance costs, debit interchange regulation, credit card processing, payment steering, the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program, and merchant acquiring.
You can read and subscribe to the newsletter here: .
Digital Transactions News – October 6, 2025
PayPal Holdings Inc. announced it is offering 5% cash back to U.S. consumers using its buy now, pay later payment option for purchases through the end of the year. In addition, PayPal is rolling out its Pay Monthly BNPL option to in-store shoppers.
The moves are expected to make PayPal’s BNPL offerings more “rewarding” and “flexible” as payment options, the company says. PayPal’s Pay Monthly payment option allows users to pay off purchases using 3-, 6-, 12-, or 24-month payment plans with zero dollars down. Users can finance up to $10,000 in purchases. PayPal also offers a Pay In 4 option that splits purchases up to $1,500 into 4 interest-free, bi-weekly payments.
PayPal added the cash-back option as a way to differentiate its BNPL offerings. . . .