Law and Regulation

It’s been 13 years since merchants were allowed to add surcharges to cover much of their credit card processing costs, yet confusion and complexity remain. Speakers at the Transact 2026 conference last week, sponsored by the Electronic Transactions Association, did their part to dispel much of this confusion. “Surcharging is a …

As online traffic powered by artificial intelligence explodes, businesses are struggling to differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent agentic commerce agents, says a study by AI-based fraud-prevention platform provider Darwinium. Some 97% of businesses report an increase in AI-based fraud attacks in the past year, the report says. Among these businesses, …

The Electronic Payments Coalition has opened another front in the battle over the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act with the launch of an ad campaign aimed at having the law overturned by the Illinois legislature. The campaign comes hard on the heels of efforts by organizations representing financial institutions in …

Three organizations representing the banking community, as well as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency along with former acting members of the OCC, filed amicus briefs late Friday urging the court to overturn the decision to exempt Illinois merchants from paying interchange on the sales tax and gratuities …

Available beginning March 16, the CardFlight Inc. SwipeSimple App Marketplace will enable merchants to use curated applications to help run their businesses. In related news, fintech Jaris Inc. launched a merchant onboarding service with Aurora Payments as one of the first clients. New York City-based CardFlight says the marketplace for …

Kraken Financial, a Wyoming-based special-purpose depository institution operated by Payward Inc., has become the first digital bank to get a Federal Reserve master account. With the account, Kraken will be able to settle transactions directly on core payment rails in the United States, such as Fedwire, the Federal Reserve’s real-time …

New York Governor Kathy Hochul late Monday unveiled new rules to regulate buy now, pay later lenders in the state. The proposed regulations, the governor says in a statement, are intended to protect residents of the state from excessive BNPL fees and the misuse of personal data, and require greater …

Japanese fintech PayPay Corp. is preparing a push into the United States through a partnership with Visa Inc. and an initial public offering. Through Visa, PayPay will develop new payment options for its mobile wallet beyond QR codes to broaden its wallet appeal to U.S. consumers. PayPay specializes in QR …

Hoot Host launched an expanded version of its software-with-a-service product for online businesses, including payments acceptance through PayPal, Square, and Stripe. The cryptocurrency exchange OKX, based in the Seychelles and with a regional headquarters in San Jose, Calif., received a Payment Institution license in Malta, a move that will allow the company …

Chip cards are coming to state benefit programs, with the latest development emerging from Alabama. The state’s Department of Human Resources is mailing electronic benefit cards embedded with chips as a means to combat fraud, according to an announcement early Friday from the chip card supplier, Conduent Inc. The chip …