From traditional financial institutions and established payment networks to emerging fintech disruptors and global technology platforms, Hunton provides organizations across the value chain with sophisticated legal counsel to navigate the dynamic payments ecosystem. As this practice area experiences unprecedented transformation, driven by technological innovation, shifting consumer demands, the proliferation of sophisticated fraudsters, and an increasingly complex global regulatory landscape, we help clients by providing legal advice that aligns with business objectives, prioritizing solutions that enable speed-to-market while mitigating regulatory, contractual, and litigation risks.

Why Us? Hunton Has Niche Payments Ecosystem Experience

Our payments practice combines deep industry knowledge, technical fluency, and market-leading transactional and general corporate experience with practical insight to deliver strategic, commercially focused solutions. We represent clients in every stage of the payments lifecycle, providing integrated advice that bridges the gap between innovation and compliance. Counseling issuing and acquiring financial institutions, non-bank fintechs, retailers, and merchants in launching and scaling payment programs and products that comply with payment network rules and federal and state regulatory requirements has informed our distinct perspective regarding the entire traditional and emerging payments system. We also counsel clients who are building out their payments and embedded finance technology stack internally or in collaboration with key third-party payments partners (ISOs, gateways, processors, etc.).

Our team provides purposeful guidance on issues involving payment system network rules, open banking, embedded payments and finance, generative and agentic AI in digital commerce, company treasury management, and digital wallets, as well as on emerging technologies such as real-time payments, stablecoins, and tokenized payment systems. We leverage our experience to advise clients based on their role and obligations within the ecosystem, as well as on the commercial realities of their businesses and objectives.

What Makes Us Different? Hunton Has Market-Leading Bank-Fintech Experience

As a regular advisor on cutting-edge partnership models, rooted in the bank-fintech space, a core differentiator of our practice is our ability to integrate regulatory product counseling with hands-on commercial deal execution. Unlike traditional payments practices that focus solely on compliance or contracting, we regularly advise on the full lifecycle of payments products and services, from structuring and analysis through negotiation of complex bank partnership, processor, and technology agreements that bring products to market. This approach enables clients to move from concept to launch efficiently while maintaining alignment with regulatory expectations and market standards.

Our team brings together nationally recognized regulatory lawyers, commercial negotiators, and litigators, with strong in‑house, government, and industry experience. With a collaborative, business‑focused approach, we help clients innovate confidently, manage risk proactively, and operate with clarity in a complicated, highly regulated marketplace.

Payments Regulatory & Compliance

Navigating the labyrinth of federal, state, and international regulations is critical to success in the payments industry. We provide forward-looking counsel on structuring business models and products, as follows, to minimize regulatory burden and maintain compliance:

• Money transmission, prepaid access, virtual card, and stored‑value structures
• Payment facilitator (PayFac), marketplace, and embedded‑commerce models
• Reg E, Reg Z, UDAAP, and state consumer protection guidance
• Network rules, sponsorship bank relationships, and program governance
• “Buy now, pay later” point-of-sale and embedded financing products and services
• Real‑time payments, open banking, stablecoins, tokenized transactions, and digital wallets
• AI agentic commerce functionality involving end user payments and agentic payments protocols
• Product structuring and launch support, including payment flows, sponsor bank relationships, BIN sponsorship models, and risk allocation
• Risk, fraud, and operational governance, including policies, controls, disclosures, and compliance assessments
• Disputes and investigations, advising on regulatory inquiries, enforcement matters, chargeback issues, and operational failures
• Unclaimed property, escheat, and gift card/loyalty programs
• Bank-fintech partnership structuring, including “true lender” frameworks, account ownership models, FBO structures, and regulatory risk allocation

Commercial, Technology, & Vendor Contracting

Participating in the payments ecosystem necessarily involves understanding a web of contractual obligations across commercial relationships. Contracts define not just how money moves or the economics of the deal, but how risk and liability are allocated between the contracting parties.

We have been recognized for negotiating complex agreements and payments ecosystem contracts that align regulatory expectations with commercial realities, including allocation of fraud, compliance, and operational risk across multiparty structures. We have extensive experience architecting and negotiating vendor, network, and customer-facing contracts from nearly every angle of the payments sphere, including arrangements with or for merchants, financial institutions, fintechs, and technology partners. We counsel on: 

• Payment processing agreements with merchant acquirers, ISOs, PayFacs, and payment gateways
• Interchange and network fee discount agreements
• Issuing and acquiring bank arrangements
• Co-branded and private label credit card agreements and partnerships
• Embedded financing services, including “Buy now, pay later” (BNPL) purchase options
• Bank and BIN sponsorship agreements and programs
• Fintech partnerships and bank‑fintech program documents
• Cloud, SaaS, fraud‑management, and identity‑verification vendor contracts
• E-commerce services and mobile wallet agreements
• Point-of-sale hardware and software agreements
• Systems integration services and back-office support services
• Data‑sharing arrangements and API/data access terms
• AI and agentic commerce functionality, including agentic payments features
• End-to-end bank–fintech program documentation, including program management agreements, custodial/FBO account structures, and sponsor bank frameworks
• Negotiation of fraud, loss allocation, and indemnity structures across issuing banks, fintechs, and processors
• Structuring and negotiation of data ownership, licensing, and usage rights in multi-party payment ecosystems

Privacy, Cybersecurity, Data Protection, & Incident Response

Data is the lifeblood of the payments industry. We advise clients on data-related risks in an environment defined by sensitive financial data and complex data flows, helping them to comply with evolving global laws, including sector‑specific financial privacy and data security requirements such as GLBA, state comprehensive data privacy laws such as the CCPA, and data protection laws in Europe and Asia, such as GDPR and PIPL.

Our work regularly addresses issues unique to the payments arena, such as handling cardholder data, tokenization, fraud monitoring, cross‑border data transfers, and vendor risk management in multiparty processing environments. We structure and negotiate data processing agreements and commercial terms involving payment data, including addressing PCI DSS and other security obligations, audit rights, incident response provisions, and allocating data-related risks. We also advise on incident readiness planning and the prevention of cyber intrusions. These activities include preparing incident response plans and procedures, conducting cybersecurity tabletop exercises, enhancing vendor management programs, and providing legal recommendations on information security policies and procedures and other cybersecurity governance documents. Our experience includes:

• US federal and state privacy laws (e.g., GLBA, CCPA)
• Data minimization, secondary use restrictions, and consent frameworks
• Cross‑border data transfers and global data protection obligations (e.g., GDPR, PIPL)
• Data mapping, retention strategies, and governance programs
• Privacy-by-design for payment platforms, identity systems, and fraud tools
• Payment‑specific security obligations, including PCI DSS and payment network mandates
• Security program development and third‑party risk management
• Cyber incident response, breach notification, and regulatory interaction
• Risk assessments, tabletop exercises, and readiness planning
• Advising on data ownership, control, and monetization in bank-fintech and payments platform relationships

We partner with a diverse array of stakeholders shaping the future of money movement, from established institutions to emerging innovators.

Retail and Digital Commerce Payments

• Work with retail clients and consumer service providers on digital commerce platforms and payments technology stack, which includes working with providers, ISOs, digital gateways, and vendors on payment processing for retailers and merchants.
• Advise on payment processing agreements and point-of-sale/point-of-purchase software and hardware, digital payment acceptance issues, and regulatory and compliance issues related to security requirements, such as PCI-DSS.
• Represent retailers and merchants in connection with digital commerce websites and mobile apps regarding payment acceptance and payment processing options.
• Represent retailers and travel services companies in arrangements for co-branded credit card programs tied to loyalty programs.
• Provide legal advice to retailers and merchants on closed-loop gift card products, including physical and virtual cards and card accounts, and advice regarding unclaimed property issues and escheat laws.
• Provided corporate counsel to a consortium of 45+ in-house business clients to draft and negotiate agreements for the US multistate launch and operation of a major UK-based supermarket chain, including commercial banking, credit card, payment processing, and ATM agreements; private label and branded product supplier agreements; corporate payables agreements; consulting services agreements; and survey and reporting services agreements.
• Negotiate agreements and counsel retailers on point-of-sale systems to accept flexible spending debit cards associated with supplemental benefits plans.
• Provide guidance and interpretation regarding payment network rules and create bespoke rules for emerging payment platforms.
• Counsel clients on risk-mitigation initiatives, such as chargeback management programs and dispute resolution frameworks.

Non-Bank Fintech Payments

• Advise a global technology company in launching its first proprietary payment financing product, including regulatory structuring, licensing strategy, product design, and customer terms.
• Represent a client developing and implementing digital wallet products that seek to combine online and point-of-sale payment functions with loyalty/rewards, targeted ads and offers, and financial spend and budgeting services.
• Counsel a national mobile wallet provider on state and federal regulatory issues and compliance, privacy and data security, and intellectual property matters, including advice regarding product development and launch.
• Represent fintech in product development, referral partnerships, and compliance regarding niche driver and fleet management fuel and expense payment cards and digital wallets.
• Advise an app developer in creating a digital-wallet “white label” software development kit for use by various digital wallet providers providing counsel on joint development and customer agreements.
• Represent a digital banking platform developer with regard to regulatory, compliance, and privacy and data security issues, as well as digital banking customer-facing terms and conditions, and provide guidance on financial institution contracts (as third-party vendor).
• Advise a fintech payments processor platform operator on matters related to customer-facing disclosures, advertising and marketing compliance, and risk management.
• Assisted a card issuer in redesigning an existing rewards program, creating benchmarks against best-in-class standards, conducting risk assessments, transitioning grandfathered point balances, and terminating legacy features.
• Advise payments companies, digital commerce platforms, digital asset and cryptocurrency firms, and retailers in addressing electronic payment regulations, federal FinCEN registration, and state money transmitter licensing, including assisting in nationwide licensing applications.
• Counsel fintech platforms and sponsor banks on “buy now, pay later” and other point-of-sale financing products, including evolving federal and state regulatory frameworks.
• Advise earned wage access and liquidity product providers on regulatory positioning, disclosures, and bank partnership structures.
• Represent fintech platforms in structuring and negotiating bank partnership programs supporting consumer lending, payments, and stored value products.

Financial Institutions and Services Payments

• Represent financial institutions with regard to creation and implementation of digital banking services, including alternative payment services such as person-to-person (P2P) transfers, stablecoin services, and tokenized deposits.
• Counsel issuing banks on agreements and transactions relating to ACH and debit, credit and stored-value card related agreements, and commercial agreements and transactions.
• Advise issuing banks and acquiring banks on payments products, services, and payment network rules for customer products and services.
• Work with 25+ banks for fintech partnerships regarding payment product, embedded banking, and stablecoin and tokenized deposits customer products and services.
• Advise as “product counsel” to credit, debit, and prepaid card issuers regarding product design, compliance with consumer financial laws and regulations, launch, and updates.
• Negotiate agreements for the bank technology stack supporting payments transactions, including core processing, digital banking, card processing/servicing platforms, real-time payments, bill payment and presentment services, AML/BSA compliance, fraud, and identity management solutions.
• Assist financial institutions to develop new products and services, including consumer and business products, banking services, and point-of-sale financing options.
• Advise sponsor banks on structuring, launching, and governing fintech partnership programs, including oversight frameworks, third-party risk management, and regulatory alignment.
• Counsel banks on deposit account structures supporting fintech programs, including custodial and FBO account models and FDIC pass-through insurance considerations.