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n n n n n Blow’s comments before the regional ISO trade group came just a day after the CFBP announced its first public enforcement action, one that targeted the issuing side of the credit card business. The CFPB issued an order requiring a bank subsidiary of the big issuer …
Read More »Mitek Fires Another Salvo in Battle with USAA Over Mobile Capture Technology
A pitched battle between two of the earliest players in the business of mobile check capture escalated on Thursday when Mitek Systems Inc. filed a legal motion accusing USAA of defamation and unfair business practices. Mitek’s action is the latest salvo in a case in which San Antonio, Texas-based USAA …
Read More »Merchants Wring More Than $7 Billion out of Networks, Banks in Credit Card Settlement
The card networks, major U.S. banks, and U.S. merchants reached a $7-billion-plus settlement late on Friday, capping a seven-year battle over credit card interchange and network acceptance rules. If approved by the court, the settlement will be the largest such agreement ever in an antitrust case. Under the terms of …
Read More »Brooklyn Court Could Be More Inclined to Rule Reform Than Interchange Cuts
With a trial date looming in September, speculation is rising that a major antitrust case challenging credit card interchange will result in new rules handing merchants wider latitude in surcharging for transactions, routing payments, and steering customers to other cards or forms of payment. Settlement talks in the case, known …
Read More »Gift Card Sellers Get Half a Loaf in New Jersey As State Delays ZIP Code Rule
New Jersey has delayed implementation of the most onerous provisions of an unclaimed-property law affecting gift cards that caused American Express Co. and two major gift card distributors to pull out of the state this spring. The changes Gov. Chris Christie signed into law last week, however, don’t repeal the …
Read More »Discover’s Chief Hits Visa’s Strategy To Defend Its Debit Market Share
The chief executive officer of Discover Financial Services isn’t too pleased with what Visa Inc. is doing to retain its lead in the debit marketplace now that the Durbin Amendment’s transaction-routing provisions are in place. Discover owns the Houston-based Pulse network, which like other electronic funds transfer networks stands to …
Read More »Check 21 Saved U.S. Payments System $3 Billion-Plus in 2010, Fed Paper Estimates
Check 21 saved the U.S. payments system more than $3 billion in 2010 as paper check clearing gave way almost entirely to image clearing, according to a paper released recently by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The paper sets out what is believed to be the first effort at …
Read More »Jury Nails VeriFone in Software Patent Case But Clears Rival Ingenico
A little software company gone bust won big against leading point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc. in a patent-infringement verdict June 8. A federal jury in Texas found after a five-day trial that VeriFone infringed on two patents held by CardSoft Inc. and awarded damages and royalties of $15.4 million. …
Read More »Card-Not-Present Processor Litle Reports Durbin Has Cut Debit Interchange in Half
Online merchants and other card-not-present retailers that have so-called interchange-plus agreements with their acquirers are enjoying significantly lower transaction costs thanks to the Durbin Amendment, if research from processor Litle & Co. posted on Wednesday is any indication. Litle’s numbers indicate its client merchants have seen interchange costs cut in …
Read More »Dodd-Frank’s Consumer Bureau Starts to Mull Regulations for Prepaid Cards
The federal government’s new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fixed general-purpose reloadable prepaid cards in its regulatory sights Wednesday with a notice of proposed rulemaking and a public hearing in Durham, N.C., where its senior officials heard both praise for and condemnations of the cards. The CFPB said it would examine …
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