Payments Regulatory Deadlines to Watch in April 2026

Each month, we leverage data from our Horizon Scanning Regulatory Deadlines Calendar to bring you a glimpse of the key response deadlines and legislation effective dates coming up, so you can plan and take action around some of the most important regulatory developments unfolding right now.

In April, there are 55 regulatory deadlines on the horizon — with 19 key consultation periods coming to an end and requiring a response, and 23 actionable deadlines to be aware of coming into effect.

What are the regulatory deadlines to watch in April?

Luxembourg

On December 1, 2025, Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) announced that it will launch its annual anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) questionnaire for the year 2025 on February 23, 2026.

The questionnaire collects standardised key information concerning money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks to which entities under the CSSF’s supervision are exposed. It also gathers information on the implementation of measures to mitigate these risks and contributes to the CSSF’s ongoing assessment of risks in the financial sector. The 2025 questionnaire has been amended to introduce several new questions.

The questionnaire will launch on February 23, 2026, and entities must submit their responses by April 3, 2026.

U.S.

On March 10, 2026, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an expanded Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) to help law enforcement combat illicit and money laundering activities of Mexico-based cartels and other criminal actors along the southwest border of the US. 

The GTO subjects certain money services businesses (MSBs), which provide financial services outside of formal banking, to enhanced reporting requirements with FinCEN. Specifically, the GTO requires MSBs to file currency transaction reports (CTRs) with FinCEN for cash transactions between $1,000 and $10,000 occurring in specified counties and zip codes. 

The GTO is effective from March 7, 2026 through September 2, 2026. It provides a 30-day compliance period for MSBs that were not required to report under the previous version of the GTO, which will not need to begin filing reports until April 6, 2026. For all MSBs required to report under the GTO, the filing deadline is extended from the standard 15 days for CTRs to 30 days, for the entire period of the GTO.

Sweden

On February 26, 2026, the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) published an announcement on reporting for payment service providers in line with the Regulation (EU) 2024/886 (Instant Payments Regulation - IPR) (IPR). 

Payment service providers that provide payments in euros must report data on fees for transfers, rejected transactions and payment accounts to the FSA by April 9, 2026 the latest. The opportunity for payment service providers to report in FIDAC, the FSA’s system for periodic reporting,  opened on February 26, 2026.

Portugal

Portugal's Council of Ministers has passed and officially published Decree-Law No. 79/2026, implementing and expanding Law No. 75/2021, which strengthens access to credit and insurance contracts for people who have overcome or mitigated situations of aggravated health risk or disability, prohibits discriminatory practices, and enshrines the right to be forgotten.

The decree-law extends the right to forget framework beyond its original scope by including payment institutions, electronic money institutions, and insurance distributors alongside credit institutions and insurance companies. The right to be forgotten reinforces equality of access to housing credit, consumer credit, and insurance contracts associated with those loans for people who have overcome or mitigated situations of aggravated health risk or disability. The decree-law enters into force on April 16, 2026, 30 days after its publication in the official gazette.

UK

On June 13, 2025, HM Treasury published a statutory instrument on the Payment Services and Payment Accounts (Contract Termination) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. The regulations amend Regulation 51 of the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs) to impose new requirements on payment service providers (PSPs) in relation to the termination of framework contracts for payment services concluded for an indefinite period and entered into on or after April 28, 2026.

The key amendments include:

• Regulation 3 substitutes Regulation 51 of the PSRs with new Regulation 51 and new Regulations 51A to 51D.
• Regulation 51 of the PSRs restates the requirements that apply to all framework contracts, regardless of when they were entered into. 
• Regulation 51A restates the notice requirements that apply to framework contracts concluded for an indefinite period and entered into before April 28, 2026.

Vixio’s Horizon Scanning tool shows you real-time updates on regulatory deadlines and trends across 140+ global jurisdictions, including all US states, at the click of a button. Its Regulatory Deadlines Calendar feature sets out effective dates for published legislation, closing dates for consultation periods on proposed regulatory developments, and deadlines for specific requests for information by regulatory authorities. 

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