Legal and Regulatory Developments

SPOTLIGHT: Is Cash Legislation Making a Comeback?
ATM Marketplace – June 10, 2025

Cash has certainly taken multiple hits over the years, due in no small part to COVID-19 and increasing usage of other payment options. In addition, with many businesses considering going cashless, both the ATM industry and other groups have raised concerns over the years of cash users being left behind.

This is by no means an unfounded fear as when retailers stop accepting cash payments, the unbanked, underbanked, senior citizens and others can be left unable to pay. However, with recent legislative moves on the state level, that may be changing. Let’s take a look at the current federal and state landscape. . . .

The CCCA Goes Into Limbo as a ‘Clean’ GENIUS Bill Advances
Digital Transactions News – June 12, 2025

Efforts to attach the Durbin-Marshall Amendment to the proposed GENIUS Act, a bill to regulate stablecoins, have failed. The Senate moved late Wednesday to advance the stablecoin bill without any amendments.

Efforts to attach the amendment, which is the latest version of the Credit Card Competition Act, to the GENIUS Act began last month as CCCA sponsors saw attaching the legislation to a banking-related bill as a promising avenue for passage. The GENIUS Act is the first major piece of banking legislation to come to the Senate floor in the three years since the CCCA was first introduced.

Despite being unsuccessful in attaching the Durbin Marshall amendment to the GENIUS Act, supporters of the amendment remain optimistic it can be reintroduced, given growing support for the legislation. . . .

Senators Push Payments Fraud Task Force
Payments Dive – June 12, 2025

Four U.S. senators are proposing legislation that would create a task force to study payment scams and suggest ways for lawmakers and regulators to combat them, along with formulating industry best practices.

The Task Force for Recognizing and Averting Payments Scams Act was announced Tuesday by Senators Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican, and Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat. The Federal Trade Commission reported that Americans had lost $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% annual jump, which the senators cited in their announcement.

“We can—and should—better equip law enforcement and regulators with the tools to go after scammers and prevent scams before they happen,” Crapo said Tuesday in a news release announcing the bill. Senators Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, and Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, have signed on as co-sponsors. . . .

States and Courts Fill In Regulatory Gaps as CFPB’s Future in Flux
PYMNTS – June 10, 2025

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding and foundations are hotly debated on Capitol Hill and in courtrooms.

As the agency itself has been walking back, or outright canceling, its own rulemaking, there’s a flurry of activity at the state level where lawmakers and attorneys general are, in effect, stepping in for the bureau, levying lawsuits and legislation that treads ground typically covered by the consumer-focused watchdog.

For the providers, the state-by-state level actions mean there’s an increasingly fragmented regulatory terrain to navigate. . . .

Sen. Marshall Expected to Shift Focus to NDAA After Credit Card Competition Act Falls Short Again
CU Today – June 10, 2025

With Sen. Roger Marshall’s (R-KS) efforts to add the Credit Card Competition Act to the GENIUS Act apparently failing, the next step for the Senator is the National Defense Authorization Act, acknowledged America’s Credit Unions and the Defense Credit Union Council.

As CUToday.info reported, Marshall’s latest effort has apparently failed, with Senator John Thune (R-SD) filing for cloture Monday, making it very unlikely amendments will be added to the legislation. . . .

Senate Dems Seek to Slow GOP Roll on CFPB Defunding Bill
Law360 – June 10, 2025 (subscription required)

Senate Banking Committee Democrats are demanding a hearing on GOP budget legislation that would defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and make other financial agency cuts, arguing that its “sweeping” plans should be scrutinized before going to the floor.

In a Monday letter, ranking member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and other Democrats called on committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., to “observe normal order” and schedule a markup on the legislation, which Republicans have said would save taxpayers billions of dollars. . . .

Industry Developments

SPOTLIGHT: How Tap-to-Pay Has Evolved—And What Comes Next
Digital Transactions News – June 5, 2025

Ever since the card industry launched technology that lets merchants process transactions through an off-the-shelf mobile device, companies have worked to refine the idea further. Now, consumers can look forward to making remote purchases with a tap on their phone’s screen when they see something they want, according to payments executives.

“Tap-on-mobile is branching out to other use cases,” said Zakir Hossain, principal product manager at Discover Financial Services Inc. “There would be a small app on your phone. You just tap your card on your own phone, and that’s a card-present transaction, even though you’re tapping your own card on your own phone.” The benefit to the merchant is that the transaction, as a card-present purchase, would be less expensive, said Hossain, who spoke Wednesday at the Southeast Acquirers annual conference in Orlando, Fla., in a session focused on the latest developments in tap-and-pay technology. . . .

Fiserv CEO Embraces Stablecoins
Payments Dive – June 10, 2025

Payment processing giant Fiserv is developing an infrastructure for its merchant customers to pay for goods and services with cryptocurrencies, the company’s CEO, Mike Lyons, said in a presentation last week.

The Milwaukee-based company has heard from its merchants clients that they’re interested in using cryptocurrency such as stablecoins, a common type of digital asset, Lyons said in a June 3 question and answer session at the Baird Global Consumer, Technology and Services Conference in New York City.

“We’re hearing from merchants, ‘Hey, maybe this has got a lot less interchange,’” Lyons said in response to a questions about merchants and banks using stablecoins. “We’re going to help them develop the capabilities.” . . .

Plaid Launches Request for Payment
PYMNTS – June 9, 2025

Plaid now enables instant pay-ins as well as instant payouts via its flexible multi-rail payment platform, Plaid Transfer.

The financial data network has added support for real-time pay-ins via Request for Payment (RfP) on the RTP® Network to Instant Payments on Plaid Transfer, it said in a Monday (June 9) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

RfP enables businesses to request a payment from a customer in real time, according to the release. . . .

Read Payments News Update – June 13, 2025 at constantinecannon.com