Payments News Update – October 24, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
Law360 – October 20, 2025 (subscription required)
A New York federal judge who was recently assigned to a putative interchange fee class action lawsuit from California cardholders against Visa, Mastercard and major banks in long-running multidistrict litigation has denied their motion for reconsideration of another judge’s reconsideration denial.
U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan was put on the case in September by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, taking over for another judge in the Eastern District of New York, U.S. District Judge Margo K. Brodie.
In December 2024, Judge Brodie adopted a magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss the cardholders’ Cartwright Act claim, holding that the plaintiffs lacked antitrust standing to sue because they did not directly pay the interchange fees. The plaintiffs moved for reconsideration of that decision, which Judge Brodie denied in May. . . .
Digital Transactions News – October 23, 2025
Attorneys for plaintiffs and defendants in the lawsuit challenging the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act presented oral arguments Wednesday on plaintiffs’ motion for Summary Judgment in the case.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that the preliminary injunction against the IFPA be broadened so that all financial institutions are exempt from the law, not just those regulated under the National Banking Act. The preliminary injunction, issued in 2024, does not exempt Illinois chartered banks or credit unions from the IFPA. In June, Illinois lawmakers extended the implementation date for the IFPA by 12 months, to July 1, 2026.
“The aim of injunctive relief is to give complete relief, and this court has the power to give us complete relief,” the attorney for the plaintiffs told United States District Court Judge Virginia Kendell, who is presiding over the case. . . .
Payments Dive – October 23, 2025
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau collected about 14,000 comments by a Tuesday deadline suggesting how it should revise an open banking rule.
Aside from the banks and fintechs clashing over how Americans may control their personal financial information, the issue drew commentary from a motley assortment of interests: advertisers, food suppliers, consumer advocates, convenience stores, credit unions, grocers, retailers, retirees, libertarians, mortgage lenders, taxpayers and cryptocurrency groups.
In a letter Tuesday, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, called the Section 1033 open banking portion “a bright spot” of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. . . .
Financial Times – October 21, 2025 (subscription may be required)
The chief executive of “buy now, pay later” lender Affirm has called on the US to find new ways to cap late fees on the sector’s increasingly popular loans, after the Trump administration scrapped Biden-era plans to regulate BNPL groups.
Max Levchin, who founded US-listed Affirm in 2012, said setting limits on the penalties would encourage lenders to focus on refining their underwriting models instead of betting on consumers missing payments.
“If buy now, pay later . . . was capping its ability to make money on delinquencies and defaults by regulating fees down, it would motivate the players to just get really, really good at underwriting,” Levchin, who was also a co-founder of PayPal, told the Financial Times in a recent interview. . . .
ABA Banking Journal – October 17, 2025
The American Bankers Association today urged the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department to alleviate the operational challenges caused by the end of penny production, such as by providing public education, giving guidance on rounding transactions and ensuring the existing penny supply continues to circulate during the transition.
Earlier this year, President Trump directed the Treasury Department to stop producing pennies. The U.S. Mint produces coinage but the Fed distributes coins to banks and credit unions.
In a letter, ABA said that all stakeholders — banks, retailers and consumers — would benefit from a coordinated federal response to the situation. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT:
PYMNTS – October 20, 2025
Digital wallets have reached a turning point.
Weekly in-store usage has more than doubled year over year, and Apple Pay now moves an estimated $450 billion in annual sales. Yet cards still dominate checkout counters, and a new wave of challengers, from Google Pay to Cash App, is rewriting what “contactless” really means.
“Apple Pay @11: Usage is Up, but Competitors are Gaining Ground” reveals how consumer habits, competitive dynamics, and form-factor innovation are reshaping everyday payments. . . .
CSP Daily News – October 22, 2025
Convenience-store retailers today face rising costs from credit card fees and competition for customers’ attention. Finding faster, cheaper payment options that also drive customer loyalty is critical for c-store retailers, said Doug Kantor (pictured left), general counsel of NACS, during the 2025 NACS Show in Chicago.
One potential solution: accepting stablecoins, a form of digital money that could reduce fees and increase flexibility, said Michael Curry (pictured second from right), principal of stablecoin solutions at Spendcodes, a stablecoin point-of-sale (POS) company.
Stablecoins are a type of digital money designed to keep its value steady, usually equal to one U.S. dollar. Unlike bitcoin, its price doesn’t jump up and down. . . .
The Wall Street Journal – October 21, 2025 (subscription may be required)
ChatGPT has the potential to make shoppers’ lives much easier. The effect on retailers will be more complicated.
Last week, investors cheered after Walmart —America’s largest retailer—said it would let shoppers buy its products directly within OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Walmart’s shares rose nearly 5% that day, adding about $40 billion to its market cap. Etsy and Shopify added 16% and 6%, respectively, when they announced their respective partnerships with ChatGPT.
A lot of retailers’ web traffic comes from external places such as Google search already, but shoppers typically need to click through to the retailers’ websites to complete the transaction. . . .
Payments Dive – October 21, 2025
Payment processing giants Fiserv, Stripe and Block stand to save money from their embrace of cryptocurrencies, according to consultants and analysts who follow the payments industry.
All three companies have announced ventures into digital assets in recent months.
While Block said it would help merchants accept Bitcoin, Fiserv and Stripe both plan to delve into stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of a fiat currency like the dollar. Those ties theoretically help them hold their value better than more volatile assets like Bitcoin or Dogecoin. . . .
PYMNTS – October 20, 2025
The Clearing House says it is seeing wider adoption of its bank account tokenization solution.
Token Service is designed to safeguard the information associated with bank account numbers and help mitigate risks tied to fraud and data breaches, The Clearing House (TCH) said in a Monday (Oct. 20) news release.
“When a client links their account information with a third party, tokenization replaces sensitive payment account information with a ‘token,’ protecting consumers by concealing their actual bank account numbers so they are not shared,” the release said. . . .
Customer Experience Dive – October 20, 2025
Nearly three-quarters of global consumers say they are using AI in their shopping journeys, according to a survey of more than 5,000 people released Monday by Riskified.
Only 13% of consumers say they’ve had an AI complete a purchase after it guided them to a website, but 70% say they feel at least somewhat comfortable with an AI agent making purchases on their behalf.
Consumers’ biggest concern for autonomous AI purchases, cited by about one-third of respondents, was payment security. Other top worries were privacy, potential mistakes and loss of control. . . .
CNN Business – October 19, 2025 (subscription may be required)
Americans are feeling bleak about the economy. Yet, despite headwinds, high earners are still spending like mad — and credit card companies are offering more and more perks to attract them.
But some experts are worried these additional rewards for the rich are raising costs for everyone else, from merchants to customers.
“Credit card companies (are) working to serve the most affluent customers more and more,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at the trade group National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). These companies “try to get (high earners) more rewards at everyone else’s expense by pushing those costs on to everyone.” . . .