Law and Regulation

Seeking to improve merchant adoption of PINless debit transactions, the U.S. Payments Forum Monday released a white paper detailing the potential obstacles to PINless debit implementation in the United States and how they can be overcome. One advantage of PINless debit transactions is that they can be processed faster than PIN-based debit transactions, …

Observers have warned that an activist Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is likely to act on multiple fronts that involve the payments industry. Early Wednesday it released its latest proposal, a move to cut the $12 billion it estimates consumers pay annually in credit card late fees. While the proposal could …

Banking and payments professionals should watch for action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on key areas such as open banking, credit card late fees, fintech partnerships, and buy now, pay later plans, warns Strategic Resource Management, a consulting firm. American Express Co. released its American Express Business Blueprint, a digital cash flow management service …

The U.S. Department of Justice wants more information from Visa Inc. on its U.S. debit practices, a continuation of an investigation originally started in 2021. Visa disclosed the request in a Jan. 27 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing and said the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division made the request on …

Data breaches remained at near record levels in 2022, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s annual data breach report. The number of breaches totaled 1,802 last year, just 60 short of the all-time high recorded in 2021, making the total number of breaches in 2022 the second-highest on record. …

The Digital Dollar Project early Wednesday issued recommendations that include bigger investments by the federal government in researching a tokenized digital dollar. The group also called on the United States to exert leadership internationally in setting global standards for government-issued digital currencies even if the U.S. itself ultimately refrains from …

Oracle Corp. said restaurant chain Big Boy Restaurant Group LLC will adopt its Micros Simphony Cloud Point of Sale and Oracle Payment Cloud Service. Payments provider Paysafe Ltd. said it has expanded its processing services to sports betting in Ohio. The move follows on the heels of Paysafe’s entry in the Maryland sports-betting …

Point-of-sale system maker Lightspeed Commerce Inc. said it will reorganize as it contends with a shifting economy. Among its actions are the elimination of 300 jobs, accounting for approximately 10% of its overall employees. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering regulations governing the fees providers charge for cross-border money wires, according to The Wall …

Newtek Business Services Corp., a provider of loans, merchant processing, and other services for small businesses, has completed its acquisition of National Bank of New York City. The acquisition agreement, which Newtek entered into in 2021, was subject to approval by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The …

When the Federal Trade Commission announced two days before Christmas it had leveled a preliminary consent order against Mastercard Inc. to correct what the agency saw as roadblocks the card company had erected against routing online debit transactions to competing networks, the move may have surprised at least some observers. …