Paytech and Payment Systems

In today’s digital universe, technology continues to drive connected commerce and innovative payment solutions. Companies involved in electronic payments need legal counsel with the resources and experience to help them navigate the competitive and evolving landscape, both efficiently and cost-effectively.

Whether you are established in electronic transactions or offering payments as a feature of a non-payments core offering, Taft attorneys have the knowledge and experience to guide you through the regulatory landscape and advise you on crucial contractual relationships.

We are nationally recognized for our decades of experience with legal issues surrounding credit and debit card processing, Fintech, merchant acquiring, money transmission, prepaid access, virtual wallets, mobile payments, cryptocurrency, Automated Clearing House (ACH), and payment facilitation.

Regulatory Compliance and Payment Operations

Our Paytech and Payment Systems attorneys have extensive experience navigating various regulatory issues across multiple jurisdictions, including:

• Advising payment facilitators regarding money transmission regulations and ways to restructure flow of funds to reduce regulatory exposure under state and federal law.
• Advising payment processors regarding qualification of federal payment-processor exemption and agent-of-the-payee exemption to certain states’ money transmission regulation.
• Advising payment processors regarding the structure of a surcharging program consistent with Card Brand rules and relevant state laws.
• Advising merchants and providers on the implementation of a compliant cash-discount program.
• Representing payment gateways on state and federal compliance matters to reduce risk of non-compliance.
• Advising remittance providers and money transmitters on anti-money laundering (AML) compliance obligations.
• Advising SaaS providers on embedded payment solutions including negotiating relevant agreements and advising on regulatory compliance.

Strategic Relationships and Contracts

Our attorneys routinely negotiate complex payment agreements and understand the business nuances of the payments industry allowing them to effectively protect our clients’ interests. Our extensive contract experience includes:

• Representing processors, payment facilitators, and ISOs in the negotiation of bank sponsorship agreements and downstream agreements.
• Representing acquiring sponsor banks on BIN sponsorship agreements and compliance matters.
• Representing private equity companies on several multi-hundred-million-dollar transaction in connection with various asset and equity acquisitions of payment companies.
• Representing payment companies in the sale of their business or payment-related assets.
• Representing ISVs in various merchant verticals in connection with their entry into the payments industry through payment facilitator sponsor arrangements or “pay-fac lite” models.
• Serving as outside general counsel to various payment companies including an ATM network, payment processors, and merchant acquiring companies.

Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement

Our attorneys understand that the best defense is a good offense. Our payment attorneys have decades of experience navigating payment-related disputes and can effectively mitigate exposure points before they materialize.  But in those cases where litigation is necessary, our team of payment litigators have the gravitas to get the job done and have handled a wide range of disputes including:

• Representing ISOs in litigation with agents regarding the calculation of residuals and violations of non-solicitation restrictions.
• Representing an ISO in suit against an agent regarding amounts owed for a sold portfolio.
• Appealing a card brand compliance assessment imposed against an acquiring bank due to a merchant’s data breach.
• Advising an ISO concerning the appropriate response to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asset freeze on merchant accounts and compliance with a demand for the production of documents.
• Counseling a gateway on its response to a state Attorney General’s inquiry about merchant online tobacco sales.
• Representing a bank against a merchant disputing its placement on MATCH.