Wednesday 28 October 2026
Top of the morning
US court strikes down the Fed's debit fee cap. An appeals court ruled the Federal Reserve miscalculated the Regulation II cap and vacated it, saying only per-transaction costs can be counted.
Visa closes its year with Q4 revenue up 13%. Cross-border volume rose 14%, and other revenue was up 40% for the full year. These are the first results since Australia's surcharge ban took effect, though the quarter itself ended the day before.
Star finds out its AUSTRAC penalty this morning. The Federal Court is due to rule on AUSTRAC's case, in which the regulator has argued for a $400 million penalty.
Regulator watch
AUSTRAC: Justice Cameron Moore is due to hand down the penalty in AUSTRAC's AML/CTF case against The Star on Wednesday morning. AUSTRAC has argued for $400 million, and Star says anything over $100 million would push it into liquidation. It's not a payments matter as such, but it's the next big benchmark for AML/CTF penalties. Read: AAP via Newcastle Herald
RBA, ASIC, APRA, ACCC, Treasury, AusPayNet: no payments releases this window.
Schemes & Networks
Visa closes FY2026 with revenue up 15% and cross-border volume up 14% in Q4
Visa's fiscal fourth-quarter net revenue rose 13% to US$12.1 billion. Payments volume was up 9% and cross-border volume up 14%, both in constant dollars, and processed transactions reached 74.2 billion. For the full year, net revenue rose 15% to US$45.9 billion. Other revenue, the line that captures much of Visa's services business, was up 40%. The board raised the quarterly dividend 16%.
Why it matters: the quarter ended 30 September, the day before Australia's surcharge ban took effect, and the release doesn't mention Australia. Visa's growth is coming from cross-border fees and services rather than domestic card volume, and interchange caps don't reach either of those. That's where Australian merchants and regulators will look next. Watch the analyst call, which starts at 8am Sydney time, for any comment on Australia. Mastercard reports on Thursday US time.
Issuing & Acquiring
Nothing notable this window.
Digital Wallets
Apple Pay goes live in Uzbekistan, and Google Pay adds local bank cards
Apple Pay started rolling out in Uzbekistan on 27 October with eight banks, and Google Pay began accepting local bank cards the same day with nine banks. For now only Visa and Mastercard cards are supported. Banks are still working on tokenisation for the domestic HUMO and Uzcard schemes.
Why it matters: once again, global wallets launch on the international schemes first and domestic networks wait for tokenisation. That's the same order eftpos went through here. A domestic scheme's share of wallet transactions depends on getting tokenised and dual-network cards into wallets early, because that's what least-cost routing needs to work.
New Products & Features
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International
Appeals court vacates the Fed's debit interchange cap
A three-judge Eighth Circuit panel upheld a 2025 lower-court ruling in the Corner Post case. It found the Fed set the Regulation II debit fee cap improperly, because the cap counted fixed costs as well as costs specific to each transaction. The Fed can use a reasonable proxy such as average variable cost, but has to sort costs properly rather than pick a number. Merchant groups welcomed the ruling. Bank and payments groups said the matter isn't settled.
Why it matters: Australia also sets debit interchange on a cost basis, and the RBA has just reset its benchmarks. A US court limiting recoverable costs to per-transaction ones will become a reference point for Australian merchant groups arguing for lower debit interchange, and for issuers defending what they can recover.
PayPal: BNPL up 25% as overall revenue grows 2%
Third-quarter revenue rose 2% to US$8.58 billion, and total payment volume rose 6% to US$487.1 billion. BNPL volume grew 25%, and Pay with Venmo grew 43%. Online branded checkout grew only 1%, and PayPal kept its subdued fourth-quarter guidance. CEO Enrique Lores said agent-led commerce will need both the buyer and the merchant to be verified.
Why it matters: PayPal's growth is coming from BNPL and Venmo, not its core checkout button. Australian BNPL now runs under credit licensing, so PayPal's BNPL growth is a useful offshore comparison for local providers. Its line on verifying both sides of agent-led purchases matches the safeguards Australian banks have been raising with the RBA.
USDA proposes chip and tap-to-pay for all SNAP EBT cards
The US Department of Agriculture has proposed requiring every state to issue SNAP benefit cards with chip and contactless, and requiring SNAP retailers to accept them. States would have two years to comply. Grocers back the plan, saying skimming fraud dropped significantly in states that have already moved to chip.
Why it matters: skimming survives wherever magstripe does. For Australian practitioners the read-across is to government and prepaid card programs, where card technology can lag the mainstream and fraud moves to the weakest channel.
People moves
Nothing notable this window.
Coming up in Analysis
What the US debit cap ruling means for cost-based interchange in Australia · BNPL growth offshore vs Australia's regulated BNPL market · Scheme results after the surcharge ban
Not financial advice. Summaries paraphrase the linked sources.