Petitions for Declaratory Order

The Department has received a Petition for Declaratory Order from the Electronic Transaction Association. See the Petition

The Petition asks the Department to clarify the December 7, 2015, Payment Processors Interpretive Statement 2016-1. The Petition also asks the Department to issue a Declaratory Order including payment processors that act on behalf of merchants, not consumers, under the exclusion found at RCW 19.230.020(9). See the Interpretive Statement

The Department has responded to the Petition. See the Department’s response. The Department has declined the Petition’s request for the reasons stated in the Response.

The Department expects to work with the payment processing industry to clarify the implementation of the Interpretive Statement and to clarify the Statement’s correlation to federal law. Other parts of the Interpretive Statement may be clarified as well.

If you have questions about this process, contact:

Cindy Fazio
Chief of Regulatory Affairs – Consumer Services
Washington Department of Financial Institutions
360-902-8800
1-877-746-4334
lfazio@dfi.wa.gov