Payments News Update – September 11, 2026
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT: Card Fees Have Staying Power
Payments Dive – August 27, 2026
Despite merchants’ persistent attacks on card fees, those tolls have an indomitable inertia that seems to suggest they aren’t shrinking anytime soon.
The fees, imposed by banks that issue cards and the card networks, consistently withstand the recriminations that restaurateurs, retailers and politicians spew at them.
Five years ago, it appeared that the fight between merchants and the card companies had perhaps reached a tipping point, with merchants gaining leverage by way of their congressional champion, Sen. Dick Durbin. But now, financial players have quietly regained ground. . . .
Debit Fee Battle ‘Huge Looming Threat’ to Large Retail Banks
American Banker – August 26, 2026 (subscription required)
A second lawsuit challenging the Federal Reserve’s debit interchange cap is slated to begin oral arguments in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit on Oct. 22 in a case that could dramatically cut debit interchange revenue for the largest debit card issuers, including JPMorganChase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
The case, Linney’s Pizza v. the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, questions whether the Federal Reserve included ineligible expenses in its calculation of issuer costs.
Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove in Kentucky upheld the Federal Reserve’s debit interchange fee cap. The merchants are appealing. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT: Visa CEO Says AI Shopping Has Arrived but Agentic Payments Haven’t
PYMNTS – September 8, 2026
Artificial intelligence may be changing where consumers decide what to buy before it changes where they pay for it.
“We are seeing adoption for shopping, but not yet for autonomous payments,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said Tuesday (Sept. 8) at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference.
Consumers are using large language models and other platforms to compare products, shop and identify items, McInerney said, but are still moving to sellers’ websites to complete transactions. Getting beyond that point presents a trust problem on both sides. . . .
EMVCo’s Effort to Reinforce Trust in Card-Based Agentic Commerce
Digital Transactions News – September 1, 2026
The payments industry’s embrace of agentic commerce took a step forward early Tuesday [September 1] with an announcement from EMVCo that the standards body has developed a framework for “secure, interoperable, and scalable” agentic transactions using cards.
The framework is by no means a final set of rules, but is intended as “a foundation for further industry engagement and potential specification development,” says EMVCo, which is inviting feedback “from all interested stakeholders” by Sept. 30. The draft the group has developed is called “EMV Agentic Payments—Framework for Specifications.”
EMVCo’s focus is on situations in which “intent needs to be managed over time,” the organization says, citing examples such as recurring purchases. . . .