By Jim Daly The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it would appeal the July 31 decision by a federal judge overturning the board’s rule implementing the Durbin Amendment, the section of 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act that regulates debit cards. The news came from Scott Alvarez, the Fed’s general counsel, at a …
Read More »Durbin Judge May Allow Merchant Reimbursement; More Retailers Sue over Interchange
A judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday gave the Federal Reserve Board a week to indicate its position about a possible interim rule for implementing the Durbin Amendment, the part of 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act that regulates debit cards, after ruling late last month that the Fed’s current regulations do not …
Read More »Isis Readies Its National Mobile-Payments Rollout with Two Big Issuers on Board
The Isis smart-phone-based payments machine is finally getting in gear, observers say, in the wake of several recent developments involving the service that is jointly owned by three big mobile-telecommunications carriers. Giant card issuer JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Monday said that several of its cards will support the Isis …
Read More »As It Gains Greater Utility, Virtual Currency No Longer Just Plays Games
By Jim Daly The U.S. virtual-currency market grew 52% in 2012 and this year it could more than double to $10.9 billion in purchases, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. What’s more, virtual currency is moving beyond its online-game moorings and into more real-world settings, though …
Read More »Wide-Ranging Hacker Indictment Casts New Light on Some Notorious Breaches
A federal indictment announced on Thursday against four Russians and a Ukrainian man casts new light on some of the biggest breaches of payment card data in recent years. The defendants, affiliated with notorious computer hacker Albert Gonzalez, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence but named as one of …
Read More »Interlink Starts Growing Again And Visa Prospers Despite Legal And Regulatory Uncertainties
Visa Inc.’s Interlink PIN-debit network is recovering after a devastating year following implementation in April 2012 of the transaction-routing requirements in the Dodd-Frank Act’s Durbin Amendment. Visa reported Wednesday that Interlink transaction volume rose 25% in its third quarter of fiscal 2013 ended June 30, a sharp turnaround from the …
Read More »Tribunal Rejects Canadian Merchants’ Pleas To Loosen Network Card-Acceptance Rules
Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc., and their Canadian credit card issuers dodged a legal bullet Tuesday when Canada’s Competition Tribunal refused to quash network rules designed to protect cards from being undercut by merchants seeking lower-cost payment forms. Instead, the tribunal suggested that changing the law was the way for merchants …
Read More »Allpoint Eyes More Surcharge-Free ATM Volume Through a New Pact with Discover
Discover Financial Services has been in the spotlight over the past year because of its high-profile effort with PayPal Inc. to bring the online-payments leader’s service to millions of physical merchants. But that’s just one iron Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover has in the fire. On Monday, the Allpoint surcharge-free ATM network …
Read More »ISOs Watch Their Backs As Regulators Step Up Scrutiny of the Payments Industry
A growing feeling among independent sales organizations about more eyes looking over their shoulders came through Thursday at the annual conference of the MidWest Acquirers Association, a regional trade group. Jitters over the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuits against ISOs that processed for allegedly fraudulent telemarketers to increasing worries about data …
Read More »New Retirement Funding Plan Latest Effort by Loss-Racked First Data To Control Costs
In an effort to free up cash to rebuild its struggling business, payment processor First Data Corp. will stop funding its 24,000 employees’ retirement plans with cash and instead provide stock grants to all employees. New First Data chief executive Frank Bisignano announced the change Monday in a memo to …
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