Constantine LLP Payments Blog

Payments News Update – May 29, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: OCC Aims to Derail State Card Law Payments Dive – May 26, 2026 The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Friday in a court brief that a federal judge should block an Illinois law prohibiting interchange fees on the tax and tip portion of bills, adhering to regulators’ preemption of the measure. The OCC issued an interim final order last month to...

Payments News Update – May 22, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Crypto Industry Scores Win as Clarity Act Regulation Bill Clears Senate Hurdle CNBC – May 14, 2026 The cryptocurrency industry notched a key win after a Senate panel on Thursday approved the Clarity Act, the first wide-ranging piece of legislation pertaining to the new industry. The Senate banking committee largely voted along party lines, 15-9, with Democratic...

Payments News Update – May 15, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Appeals Court Remands Illinois Card Fee Law Payments Dive – May 8, 2026 A federal appeals court on Friday vacated a district court ruling regarding an Illinois law prohibiting interchange fees on the tax and tip portion of bills, arguing that a move by the Trump administration to preempt the law warrants further litigation. The case was remanded to the U.S....

Payments News Update – May 8, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Gas Stations Bound to Visa Swipe Fee Deal, 2nd Circ. Says Law360 – May 4, 2026 (subscription required) A Second Circuit panel refused Monday to let a group of gas stations separately sue Visa and Mastercard over their swipe fees, holding the would-be plaintiffs cannot get out of a $5.6 billion antitrust settlement the credit card giants inked with merchants. The...

Payments News Update – May 1, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Federal Agency Casts Further Uncertainty on Illinois’ Credit Card ‘Swipe Fee’ Law Capitol News Illinois – April 27, 2026 A federal agency says Illinois can’t limit credit card swipe fees for federally chartered banks, even though a federal judge earlier this year ruled that it could. Two interim filings posted last week by the Office of the Comptroller...

Payments News Update – April 24, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Congress Moves to Give FinTechs Direct Fed Payment Access With PACE Bill PYMNTS – April 22, 2026 The future of payments infrastructure may hinge less on technology than on who is permitted to connect to it. Legislation introduced in the U.S. House this week, known as the Payments Access and Consumer Efficiency Act (PACE Act), would establish a federal...

Payments News Update – April 17, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: OCC Plans to Preempt Illinois Interchange Law Payments Dive – April 16, 2026 The Trump administration is considering an executive order to preempt the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act that is set to take effect in July. That’s according to a submission Tuesday from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is part of the Treasury Department,...

Payments News Update – April 10, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Illinois AG Defends Card Fee Law Payments Dive – April 7, 2026 An Illinois law that prohibits interchange levies on sales tax and gratuities doesn’t interfere with banks’ or card networks’ ability to set fees, the state’s attorney general said Friday in defending the law before an appellate court. The Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act isn’t...

Payments News Update – April 3, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Australia to Ban Surcharges on Payment Cards, Cut Bank Fees Reuters – March 31, 2026 Australian consumers will no longer face surcharge fees on card payments after the country's central bank said it would ban the widely disliked practice as inefficient and opaque. Wrapping up a months-long public review process, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday...

Payments News Update – March 27, 2026

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: The Card Industry’s Endless War Digital Transactions Magazine – March 17, 2026 Talk about a forever war. After more than 20 years of legal wrangling and rejected settlement offers, no end appears to be in sight for merchants’ ongoing battle against Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. over interchange fees. The latest offer from the defendant card networks, which...