Latest Payments News: Chile Delays Phasing-Out Of Coordinate Cards Until 2026, and more

Catch up on some of the stories our payments compliance analysts have covered lately, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Chile Delays Phasing-Out Of Coordinate Cards Until 2026

The Chilean Financial Market Commission (CMF) has delayed by one year the elimination of coordinate cards as an authentication method for electronic payments and transfers, moving the deadline from 2025 to August 1, 2026.

The measure is part of Chile’s wider efforts to improve customer identification and combat fraud in online payments.

Coordinate cards, printed grids of codes used to verify transactions, have been common in Chile but are increasingly seen as insecure, as they can be stolen, copied or exploited through social engineering.

The CMF has said that it wants payment issuers to transition customers, particularly those reliant on printed tools, to more secure systems such as strong customer authentication (SCA).

The regulator has also postponed the introduction of mandatory SCA use cases so both measures take effect at the same time.

PSR Announces Plans To Revoke Two Specific Directions

The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has opted to revoke Specific Direction 2 (SD2) and Specific Direction 4 (SD4), with the changes due to come into force in late August 2025.

The two longstanding rules require competitive tenders for core payment infrastructure contracts, but the PSR believes that market and policy developments have overtaken their purpose.

Specific Direction 2 (SD2), along with its amended form, SD2a, obliges the operator of the Bacs payment system to run a competitive procurement process for central infrastructure services.

The PSR said the decision to revoke the measure follows the National Payments Vision’s (NPV) call for the regulator and the Bank of England to reassess retail payments infrastructure requirements and improve governance and funding arrangements.

The move also reflects progress under the Payments Vision Delivery Committee’s latest proposals, which outline an “innovative new model for delivering the next generation of UK retail infrastructure”.

The regulator said removing SD2 will provide “the necessary space and certainty for that work to progress”.

Meanwhile, Specific Direction 4 (SD4), and its variation SD4a, imposed similar obligations on LINK, the UK’s main ATM network.

Following a consultation period, the PSR, which faces being absorbed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), concluded that the cost of mandating a tender process was high and that there were few potential bidders for the contracts.

UK Open Banking Takes Step Into Future As Details Of Future Entity Outlined

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a statement setting out the standard-setting body’s likely responsibilities.

The Feedback Statement (FS25/4) explains that the Future Entity is likely to be the industry’s main benchmark-setting body.

It will be responsible for developing and enforcing common standards on minimum service levels and interoperability across open banking, as well as monitoring application programming interface (API) performance.

Outlining the Future Entity’s structure, the regulator said it would provide directory and certification services and, together with multilateral agreement owner/operators, develop standards for commercial schemes.

The Future Entity is expected to be a company limited by guarantee operating on a not-for-profit basis, with revenue collected equitably from its users and beneficiaries.

Subject to legislation, the regulator does not expect the entity to be a public body with enforcement powers, but rather a company limited by guarantee, with board appointments made by an independent committee.

Commercial schemes will be handled separately, the regulator confirmed.

Efforts To Regulate BNPL Introduce New Challenges For Providers

With the use of buy now, pay later (BNPL) services increasing worldwide, authorities are working out how to ensure they are properly regulated and that consumers have an appropriate level of protection.

The BNPL sector has grown rapidly in recent years. According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), for example, the UK market grew from £60m in 2017 to more than £13bn in 2024, and the regulator’s latest Financial Lives Survey found that 20 percent of UK adults, around 10.9m people, used BNPL in the year to May 2024.

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), meanwhile, the total value of BNPL transactions in the country during the 2022–23 financial year was around A$19bn, equivalent to approximately 2 percent of all card transactions.

This form of credit is particularly popular among younger demographics and is widely used in e-commerce.

BNPL offers convenience and flexibility, but many are concerned about over-indebtedness, insufficient affordability checks, weaker consumer protection compared with traditional credit and opaque fee structures or late payment penalties.

For example, a 2022 study by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found that 19 percent of BNPL customers showed two or more indicators of financial stress, such as cutting back on essential items or missing payments on other bills.

Calls for regulation have increased amid rising default rates and growing scrutiny from consumer groups.

Even BNPL players such as Clearpay and Klarna have expressed support for clear regulatory frameworks.

Consultation On Redefinition Of Larger Participants The Next Stage Of CFPB’s Withdrawal

In seeking feedback on reducing the number of organisations it supervises, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has signalled its continued retreat from the active regulatory approach seen under previous administrations.

The agency is considering whether to amend its definition of larger participants in four sectors: the automobile financing, consumer reporting, debt collection and international money transfer markets.

This would leave it supervising only the largest companies in these areas.

For example, in the notice inviting comments on redefining larger participants in the consumer reporting market, the CFPB said that increasing the threshold for regulation from the current level of $7 million in annual receipts from relevant consumer reporting activities to $41 million would reduce the number of in-scope organisations from more than 30 to around six.

It stressed that regulation is a strain for smaller companies: “The Bureau is concerned that the benefits of the current threshold may not justify the compliance burdens for many of the entities that are currently considered larger participants in this market.”

In addition, the regulator, which is facing a significant cut to its funding, noted that the current threshold “may be diverting limited Bureau resources to determine whom among the universe of providers may be subject to the Bureau's supervisory authority and whether these providers should be examined in a particular year.”

Comments on the proposed changes must be received by September 22, 2025.

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