Law and Regulation

The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) was dead in the water. Most of Congress would have preferred to leave it that way, avoiding a vote in which they would have to take sides between two powerful interests: banks and merchants. But President Trump, with a single Truth Social post on …

The Calgary, Alberta-based processor Helcim Inc. has grown increasingly active in launching new services in recent years as more intense competition wears on midsize payments players. The company’s latest gambit: an extension that lets merchants access Helcim’s processing platform within the business software they already use, bypassing alternatives integrated within …

Benji Pays Solutions Inc., a payments platform for managed-service providers and small businesses, has launched Benji Payments, which it says offers payment processing directly within the company’s platform. Adyen NV’s Adyen for Platforms is serving as payment service provider. Paysafe Ltd. will become a recommended acquirer for card transactions on Pay.com’s payment-orchestration platform under a …

The proposed Credit Card Competition Act staged a comeback Tuesday with a huge boost from President Trump, who endorsed the bill on the Truth Social platform the previous day. The President’s backing breathes new life into the bill, which has been bandied about Capitol Hill for years. The last major …

Payments and rewards platform Blackhawk Network said it will issue two Mastercard-branded products: the Drive Prepaid Card, aimed at EV adoption programs, test drive incentives, and other programs related to automobiles; and the Grocery Prepaid Card, meant for cost relief. Polygon Labs, a blockchain-based payments company, announced agreements to acquire Coinme, a …

The Electronic Payments Coalition and other banking industry groups late Monday warned that enacting President Trump’s proposed one-year 10% cap on credit card interest rates would cause the majority of credit card holders to lose access to credit. President Trump, who first floated the proposal during his 2024 presidential campaign, …

Merchant surcharges are proving problematic for card-accepting merchants, as nearly one-third of small businesses say customers walk away from a potential transaction when faced with the extra charge, according to a study released early Tuesday by J.D. Power. Some 35% of merchants are now surcharging when customers use credit cards, …

Tower Payments, a high-risk merchant payment processor, launched a service for e-commerce sites selling nicotine pouches that restores credit card processing in the wake of a sudden account closure by the merchant’s existing processor. The service uses underwriting teams experienced with merchants selling synthetic and tobacco-derived nicotine products to guide …

A federal court ruled that the Trump administration cannot let its funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lapse, the Associated Press reported. The White House has contested how the CFPB is funded, but the judge said its argument about how the bureau “gets its funds is not valid,” the AP said. …