Legal and Regulatory Developments

SPOTLIGHT: Sen. Durbin to Retire, Setting Stage for Renewed Credit Card Reform Push
CU Today – April 23, 2025

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has announced he will not seek re-election next year—a move that likely signals increased efforts to have the Credit Card Competition Act passed in 2025.

Durbin stated on X that he plans to serve the remainder of his term.

The long-time opponent of payment card interchange was the chief architect of the Dodd-Frank Act’s Durbin Amendment, which carries his name. That legislation started the focus on credit and debit card interchange, and markedly reduced issuers’ debit card interchange revenue. . . .

Visa Settles With Retailers After Swipe Fees Pass-on Trial
Law360 – April 23, 2025 (subscription required)

Lawyers representing more than 1,800 businesses said Wednesday that they have reached a settlement with Visa over allegations the company imposed excessively high credit card fees — weeks after the conclusion of a trial over whether overcharges were passed on.

The deal was negotiated on behalf of a group of claimants represented by Stephenson Harwood LLP who sought compensation as part of the long-running interchange fee litigation. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

The businesses were part of the high-profile umbrella proceedings, where the Competition Appeal Tribunal for the first time pulled similar claims under one banner to be managed together. The trials have been split into three phases. . . .

With the Final OKs, the Capital One-Discover Combo Sets a May 18 Closing
Digital Transactions News – April 21, 2025

More than a year after Capital One Financial Corp. announced its $35-billion deal to acquire Discover Financial Services, it received the last federal regulatory approvals to move ahead and has set a May 18 closing.

The last two regulatory approvals, from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, were announced late Friday. Shareholders from each company approved the combo in February.

With these OKs, Capital One says the merger is expected to close May 18. The bank says there will be no immediate changes to customer accounts for either company and customers should expect to be serviced through existing Discover and Capital One channels. The deal was announced in February 2024 after news reports suggested the merger may be in the offing. . . .

Lawmakers Look at Trade-Offs Over ‘Swipe Fees’ That Generate Rewards Points
NBC Dallas-Forth Worth – April 21, 2025

Credit card companies offer a service. They provide people with a plastic and metal card allowing them to make cashless payments across the world. In exchange, those credit card companies get an interchange or “swipe fee” from the retailer. Texas lawmakers are following some other states in debating whether they need to regulate those fees more tightly.

Every day, consumers care about these fees because the money often generates popular rewards and points programs. The fees also help credit card companies reimburse consumers for fraudulent purchases.

It’s setting off a battle of trade-offs, where financial institutions, credit card providers, large and small retailers are debating who needs to carry more of the financial burden. These fees can generate more than $100 billion a year across the country, according to a bill analysis. Both supporters and opponents of the change argue they have small business interests at heart. . . .

Judge Pauses Mass Firings at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as She Considers Whether Layoffs Violated Court Order
CNN – April 18, 2025

A federal judge paused the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off nearly 1,500 of the 1,700 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as she considers whether the mass firing violated a court order halting the dismantling of the agency.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson will scrutinize the layoffs with an evidentiary hearing on April 28, during which there would be witness testimony, she said at an emergency hearing called Friday morning. She is ordering the administration to turn over internal documents and communications about the firings to the unions and other groups that have sued the administration over its efforts to take apart the agency.

The mass layoff “is not going to happen in the meantime,” Jackson said in court. The Trump administration is appealing the order. . . .

Industry Developments

SPOTLIGHT: Visa Just Opened Access to Its Product Design System; What’s in It for FinTechs
PYMNTS – April 23, 2025

Payment innovation needs payments infrastructure, and payments infrastructure needs usability. These are the twin engines of scalability, and design contributes heavily to the user experience (UX) layer.

“One of the most difficult things to do is creating exemplary experiences and doing that consistently across a global, regionally diverse product landscape. Visa’s design system helps us do both,” Robb Nielsen, Visa’s senior vice president and global head of design, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.

Design systems aren’t new to tech, but applying them at a global scale and in a highly regulated industry like financial services remains no small feat. It’s not surprising that Visa has managed it. What might be surprising is that on Wednesday (April 23), Visa opened up its proprietary system, the Visa Design System (VDS), to the rest of the payments world. . . .

Circle’s New Payments Network Solicits Banks for Cross-Border Stablecoin Settlement
Digital Transactions News – April 22, 2025

The stablecoin platform Circle Internet Group Inc. late Monday unveiled a payments network aimed at linking financial institutions and digital wallets for cross-border payments. The network, which will enable real-time settlement using what Circle calls regulated stablecoins, represents a major new thrust for the 11-year-old, New York City-based company into supporting global payments via a network of banks, payment service providers, and virtual-asset platforms.

The new venture, Circle Payments Network, will emerge “in a limited capacity” in May, says Circle, which is soliciting “licensed financial institutions interested in becoming network participants.”

Some observers see the move by Circle to serve as a global stablecoin-based payments network as ultimately competitive with card systems such as Visa or Mastercard. Others credit Circle with big ambitions but say its rivalry is really with other companies with a foundation in digital currency . . . .

What Magstripe Card Extinction Means for Banks
American Banker – April 18, 2025 (subscription required)

EMV chip cards have grown exponentially and legacy magnetic stripe cards will soon be nearly gone.

That creates a need for banks to prepare for a world without magstripe cards.

Secure chips are used in more than 12 billion credit and debit cards today, accounting for 93% of in-store transactions globally, according to EMVCo, which facilitates the interoperability and acceptance of secure payment transactions. . . .

Read Payments News Update – April 25, 2025 at constantinecannon.com