Latest Payments News: EU AML Watchdog Sets Its Sights On Crypto, 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.

EU AML Watchdog Sets Its Sights On Crypto

The EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) is signalling a strong focus on crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) as it begins to exercise its supervisory powers from this month.

In its first Work Programme since being formally launched on July 1, AMLA has stated that it expects high anti-financial crime standards from crypto firms and their supervisors across the bloc.

“We welcome the development of new technologies and business models,” said AMLA chair Bruna Szego.

“However, it is essential that in the light of a new regulatory framework and major transformation of the crypto-assets sector, Europe is adequately protected from the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing stemming from this sector.”

Although AMLA’s direct supervisory powers will not come into force until 2028, its 2025 activities will include indirect supervision of the financial sector, oversight of the non-financial sector and preparations for direct engagement with CASPs.

UK Strategy Targets Growth Via Payments And SM&CR Changes

Finance minister Rachel Reeves has unveiled reforms intended to inject momentum into the economy, promising to slash red tape and accelerate upgrades to the country’s payments infrastructure.

In her annual Mansion House speech, Reeves set out a new strategy for UK financial services, dubbed the Leeds Reforms, intended to attract investment, promote innovation and improve public engagement with capital markets.

The measures include a major shake-up of accountability rules and increased support for next-generation retail payments infrastructure.

The UK financial services sector has recently suffered a series of blows, including Wise’s decision to move its main share listing from London to the US.

In a bid to spur new momentum in the space, HM Treasury has talked up its ambition of “making the UK the fintech capital of the world”.

According to the government, it will provide “bespoke support” to firms as they start, scale and list. Fintechs will receive intensive support through the start-up phase, helping them create a proven concept and attract growth funding.

The government has also said that a single regulator point of contact will help these businesses through the scale-up phase, providing technical support to help them understand requirements and aiming to speed up regulator responsiveness.

The sector is to be supported by a better pipeline of skills, with a new Global Talent Taskforce helping attract top international talent to the UK.

There will be funding for 50 PhD students through the £187m TechFirst programme to align their research with the needs of key players in the sector.

In addition, a new financial services skills compact led by the Financial Services Skills Commission will be introduced to ensure skills needs are met.

Consultation May Signal End Of Surcharges In Australia

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has opened a consultation into card surcharging, which it says is no longer achieving its intended purpose of guiding consumers towards efficient payment choices.

The central bank released a consultation paper on July 15 as part of its Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging, which aims to ensure its objectives of competition, efficiency and safety in the payments system are achieved.

Along with the Payments System Board, the RBA has said that it would be in the public interest to remove surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa card transactions, among several other proposed reforms.

The deadline for responses is August 26, 2025, and the RBA plans to publish its conclusions and an implementation timeline for any regulatory steps by the end of the year.

Australian consumers currently pay around $1.2bn (US$788m) in card surcharges each year.

The RBA noted that as cash usage has declined, it has become harder for consumers to avoid surcharges.

In addition, it said businesses are increasingly charging the same surcharge rate for both debit and credit cards, and noted that there are significant challenges with enforcing the current surcharging rules.

Removing surcharging would make card payments simpler, more transparent and help to increase competition in the card payments system, the central bank concluded.

It also recommended lowering the cap on interchange fees paid by businesses, and said this could save them around $1.2bn in interchange fees each year.

The bank said that around 90 percent of Australian businesses would be better off under the recommended policies.

“The proposed reductions to interchange caps would benefit small businesses the most, as they tend to pay fees closer to the existing caps. Introducing caps on foreign interchange fees would help to lower fees for all businesses accepting international cards,” the RBA said.

In addition, it recommended requiring card networks and large acquirers to publish the fees they charge, which would improve transparency.

The hope is that increased competition will help all players better understand the fees they pay and make it easier for businesses to find better deals.

Wise Fine Highlights Evolution Of US Payments Regulation

The $4.2m fine for money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) violations reflects both a trend towards local enforcement and a sharpened focus on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF).

Last week, California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) and five other state financial regulatory agencies took action against Wise US for breaching the BSA and AML/CTF laws, specifically under the Countering the Financing of Terrorism Program.

Financial services firms operating in the US are required to perform due diligence on customers, including verifying identities, reporting suspicious activity, and applying appropriate controls for high-risk accounts to comply with AML regulations.

Regulators conducted a multistate investigation into Wise in January and February 2024, covering the period July 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.

They found that the firm was not complying with certain requirements, potentially enabling its services to be exploited for money laundering and terrorism financing.

EPC Finalises API Specifications For SEPA Request-To-Pay Interoperability

The European Payments Council (EPC) has published its SEPA Request-To-Pay (SRTP) Inter-Service Provider (SP) API Specifications, completing the technical documentation needed to support the implementation of the SRTP scheme across the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

The release of the v1.0 API specification, aligned with version 4.0 of the SRTP Scheme Rulebook, marks a significant step forward in realising seamless interoperability between SRTP Service Providers (SRTP-SPs).

The EPC first mandated the use of APIs for reachability between SRTP-SPs in November 2023, and the release provides the final piece for full-scale adoption, enabling consistent implementation across Europe’s expanding RTP ecosystem.

The API is designed to facilitate real-time communication between the service providers of the payee and the payer using ISO 20022 messages.

The new standards, effective from October 5, 2025, define five core endpoints for initiating and managing RTP transactions: payment request creation, retrieval, status updates, cancellations, and asynchronous callbacks via URL for delayed responses.

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