Payments

The state's ill-conceived law banning interchange fees on sales tax and gratuities will be burdensome and expensive to implement and could portend a patchwork of state-level copycat legislation that would balkanize the payments system.

The payment protocol, years in the making, includes more information for transactions, aiding real-time processing, international commerce, risk management and overall accuracy. But it also requires a lot of work.

The Federal Reserve's apparent unwillingness to disclose volumetric details about banks' use of its proprietary faster payments network suggests the central bank is hiding something. That something could be the slow death of faster payments as the new normal.

The new real-time payments system is being optimized for speed, not necessarily security, requiring the banks participating in the program to exercise a heightened level of vigilance.

Instant payment adoption in the U.S. is growing but still trails countries such as Brazil and India. Generative artificial intelligence could be the key to help financial institutions accelerate payment velocity.

As the company bolsters artificial intelligence-powered point of sale and battles other fintechs and the card networks, getting a boost with distribution has become a major priority.

Top banking trades have thrown their support behind the central bank's argument that it has discretion over access to its payments systems. Custodia is seeking to appeal a lower court ruling that affirmed that discretion.

If the government forces the card giant to reduce control over security gateways, firms that sell debit processing and adjacent payment tools to banks such as FIS and Fiserv could cash in.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s proposed rule on brokered deposits would be a step backwards for the agency and the industry it regulates.

Interchange fees and financial incentives for merchants, banks and mobile wallets could come under pressure if the government forces the card brand to alter its policies.