Law and Regulation

While much of the corporate world has high hopes for a business-friendly bent from the Trump Administration, two policy analysts on Wednesday poured cold water on some of the payments industry’s fondest hopes for regulatory relief. One such hope, to scrap a 1,689-page rule regulating prepaid cards, was sinking fast …

The same U.S. banks that have retarded progress in digital payments shouldn’t be entrusted with anything approaching a monopoly on implementing real-time payments systems, says Mark Horwedel. Lately, the Federal Reserve Board has been shepherding a cross-industry effort to build a faster, more efficient, and more secure payments system in …

If you want to see a rowdy debate, try gathering a group of colleagues and posing the question of whether or not fintech companies should be regulated. In posing this question to several groups of payments professionals, I have observed that the same arguments, pro and con, keep coming up. …

Whatever their personal feelings are about marijuana usage, the growth of the legal cannabis industry in many states will force bankers and payments executives to examine the business prospects of serving that industry, according to an executive with a regional automated clearing house association. While marijuana remains illegal under federal …

Retailers organized by the National Retail Federation and the Merchants Payments Coalition are scheduled to descend on Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to urge Congress to preserve the Durbin Amendment within the ever-controversial Dodd-Frank Act. One close observer of the political and banking scenes, however, believes the amendment will survive despite …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau confirmed last week that it will extend the effective date of its planned rule governing prepaid accounts by six months, until Oct. 1, and indicated it would consider a further extension. The embattled bureau also said it would revisit “at least two substantive issues” in …

A survey of 500 small merchants that accept debit cards finds that 66% of them are satisfied with the fees they pay, says the Electronic Payments Coalition, a bank and network advocacy organization. Javelin Strategy & Research completed the survey, which the EPC sponsored. The findings are part of the …

• Attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter this week to Congressional leaders urging them to oppose three pending joint resolutions that would overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s controversial prepaid account rule. Consumer groups generally favor the rule, but business interests and many Republicans …

While President Donald J. Trump has promised to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to stop illegal immigrants and have Mexico pay for it, an Alabama Congressman’s bill would provide financial support from people in the U.S. sending funds to Mexico and 41 other countries or territories. And …

Netspend, the prepaid card unit of processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), will pay $53 million as part of a settlement it reached with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations concerning how it handled some marketing materials. The settlement, announced Friday, calls for Netspend to set aside $40 million to …