Payments News Update – September 25, 2026
Legal and Regulatory Developments
SPOTLIGHT: Merchants Call Card-Fee Pact Unconstitutional
Payments Dive – September 22, 2026
Large merchants are sharpening one of their arguments against a class-action lawsuit settlement with Visa and Mastercard over card fees: the pact might be unconstitutional.
In objecting to the proposed settlement with the two largest card networks, big merchants – including Walmart and Circle K Stores – argue that forcing their inclusion in the settlement class violates their due process rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments.
Millions of merchants have been battling the two card networks for 21 years, seeking relief from what they consider excessive fees they pay every time a customer swipes a credit card. . . .
Illinois Swipe-Fee Ban Also Blocked for Federal Credit Unions
Law360 – September 23, 2026 (subscription required)
An Illinois federal judge expanded an order blocking the state from enforcing its landmark ban on tax-and-tip swipe fees against most banks, ruling that an injunction she granted earlier this year extends to federal credit unions in light of a new federal rule that authorizes them to collect interchange fees.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall on Tuesday granted a partial motion for reconsideration of her June ruling, which had limited the enforcement of the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act. The law bans the collection of interchange fees, also known as swipe fees, on any tax and tip amounts included in credit and debit card payments in the state.
That earlier decision had applied to nationally chartered banks, banks chartered outside Illinois and the card networks involved in processing transactions potentially subject to the IFPA. . . .
U.S. Regulators Rush to Write Crypto Rulebook After Clarity Act Stalls in Senate
CNBC – September 22, 2026
State and federal regulators are rushing to fill the void in U.S. cryptocurrency regulation after the Clarity Act, a comprehensive set of proposed rules for digital assets, stalled in the Senate.
Just two days after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate, the Securities and Exchange Commission expanded its crypto rulebook under its existing authority. The agency issued an order creating a temporary pathway for trading certain tokenized stocks, inching financial markets closer to 24/7 trading.
The same day, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted a crypto rulemaking proposal to the White House for review. . . .
Industry Developments
SPOTLIGHT: How Digital IDs May Battle Fraud
Payments Dive – September 23, 2026
Phone-based digital identification systems adopted at the state level are becoming more urgently needed with the growth of identity and payment fraud, two members of Congress said Tuesday.
Different transactions require different levels of ID scrutiny – and privacy expectations – with anyone seeking public funds required to prove who they are, Rep. Bill Foster, an Illinois Democrat, said at a webinar on digital ID, joined by Rep. Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas. . . .
Foster and Sessions are co-sponsoring a House bill that would give states “innovation grant programs” to create digital driver’s licenses and other electronic ID documents. . . .
Visa Says Small Merchants Could Move Faster on AI Shopping
PYMNTS – September 22, 2026
Small merchants are preparing for a customer who may find them through artificial intelligence before ever visiting their website, app or store.
They aren’t particularly ready. Just 11% of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) qualify as agent-ready, compared with 19% of large merchants.
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “2026 Global Digital Shopping Index: Merchant Edition,” a collaboration with Visa Acceptance Solutions, found in June that 15% of merchants overall have structured product data for agent access. . . .