Payments

With the rapid development and implementation of novel payments technology and the accelerated demand across consumer and business sectors, established market leaders and new entrants alike are experiencing an increasingly crowded and complex market — as well as a growing universe of federal and state legislators, regulators, and oversight agencies.

Steptoe helps clients innovate, leverage and deliver domestic and cross-border payment products, services and solutions for their consumer and business-to-business customers. Our Payments team includes experienced regulatory and commercial lawyers, along with former financial services regulators, and general counsel and C-suite leaders from the payments technology sector. Together, we offer our clients authoritative insight into the regulatory, business, technology, and policy trends impacting this dynamic industry.

Our Clients

We assist a wide range of clients in designing, structuring and launching commercially savvy and legally compliant payments products and services, including:

• Payments technology providers
• Payment intermediaries and gateways
• Card issuers
• Sponsor banks
• Fintech companies
• E-commerce platforms
• Consumer finance companies
• Software providers
• Brick-and-mortar and online retailers
• Companies across industries, including entertainment, social media, gaming, sports/esports, automotive, insurance and accounting

Outside Product Counsel

Innovating in a fragmented regulatory environment requires understanding — and meeting — significant regulatory, compliance, organizational and commercial challenges. Our team understands firsthand the revenue drivers and technology underpinning the payments ecosystem, as well as the practical and business challenges of innovating and deploying payment products and services.

We work with clients to develop go-to-market payment programs, customer-facing agreements, and partnerships that align their commercial objectives with the leanest regulatory footprint. We assist in planning and structuring product offerings to minimize regulatory touchpoints, agency oversight and compliance obligations. Where necessary, we pursue the required licenses, registrations and regulatory approvals.

Steptoe offers a full spectrum of legal services, including:

• Contract drafting and negotiation: Negotiation and drafting of agreements with financial institutions, service providers, merchants, and other stakeholders.
• Regulatory guidance: Preparation of regulatory opinions and memoranda, and assistance with complying with evolving regulations and payment network rules.
• Transactional advice: Counsel on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships.
• Litigation and dispute resolution: Representation of clients in disputes with financial institutions, service providers, merchants and class action litigation.
• Enforcement: Assistance with responding to regulators concerning inquiries, proposed fines, and incipient enforcement actions.

Our work spans the full range of payments products and services, including:

• Traditional credit and debit cards
• Prepaid and stored-value products
• Electronic/ACH transactions
• Embedded finance products
• Electronic and mobile payments
• Digital wallets
• Tokenization
• Blockchain technology-powered products
• Virtual cards
• Cobranded cards
• Buy now, pay later (BNPL)
• Consumer finance
• Credit products

Influencing a Dynamic Market

Our lawyers — many of whom are former consumer finance or financial services regulators — offer clients an informed understanding of the nuances of the current policies and priorities of those agencies. Working closely with our investigations and enforcement litigators, we can identify the drivers of current enforcement actions that signal important regulatory changes on the horizon, allowing clients to proactively adapt their services and solutions to shifting regulatory and compliance risks.

We not only keep our clients advised on the developing regulatory, oversight and enforcement trends impacting the market, we help them influence the direction of regulation both through formal legislative and regulatory rulemaking channels and informal discussions with regulators and oversight agencies.