Global coverage of payments regulations by region

Below is a high level list of the major payments laws, regulations, scheme/rulebooks, and supervisory frameworks across key regions. It’s organized by region/country and focuses on what typically governs cards, ACH/credit transfers, direct debits, wires, real‑time payments, e‑money/wallets, remittances, merchant acquiring/PSPs, and crypto where relevant.

Notes

• This is a high-level compliance outline (not legal advice). Specific obligations depend on your role (issuer, acquirer/PSP, processor, wallet, program manager, bank, merchant), product design, and customer segments.
• Effective dates are evolving (e.g., EU PSD3/PSR package, UK APP fraud reimbursement).

Global / cross-cutting

• FATF Recommendations (AML/CFT) and Travel Rule guidance
• UN, OFAC, EU, UK, and other national sanctions regimes
• CPMI-IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI) for payment systems
• ISO 20022 messaging standards (many rails)
• SWIFT rulebooks and Customer Security Programme (CSP)
• PCI DSS (industry standard for card data security)
• Wolfsberg principles (correspondent banking KYC/AML)
• Data protection: GDPR (EU/EEA), UK GDPR, LGPD (Brazil), PIPL (China), PDPA (SG/HK/TH/PH), CCPA/CPRA (US-CA), DPDP (India), POPIA (South Africa), NDPR (Nigeria), PIPEDA (Canada), etc.

United States

• Core consumer finance
  • Reg E (12 CFR 1005): Electronic Fund Transfers, including prepaid, P2P, remittances
  • Reg Z (12 CFR 1026): Truth in Lending (credit cards/BNPL credit features)
  • Reg II (12 CFR 235): Debit interchange & routing (Durbin)
  • Reg CC (12 CFR 229): Funds availability, check collection (Check 21)
  • Reg J (12 CFR 210): Fed collections, Fedwire
  • Reg D, DD, B, P, V; E‑SIGN Act; UCC Articles 3/4/4A
  • UDAAP (CFPB) / UDAP (FTC)
• AML/sanctions
  • BSA/FinCEN (31 CFR Chapter X); OFAC sanctions
• Rails & rules
  • ACH: NACHA Operating Rules
  • Cards: Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover network rules
  • Wires: Fedwire (Operating Circular 6), CHIPS
  • Real-time: RTP (The Clearing House), FedNow (Federal Reserve)
  • Check: Reg CC, ECCHO (as applicable)