Law and Regulation

Wireless and cybersecurity developer Berkeley Varitronics Systems Inc. launched Skim Swipe, a tool that can help detect card skimmers hidden in point-of-sale terminals. Galileo Financial Technologies, a payments-technology platform, announced it is offering wire-transfer capability via an application programming interface that links clients of Community Federal Savings Bank to the Federal Reserve’s …

Consumers may be well acquainted with the concept of overdraft protection when writing checks, but early Monday Discover Financial Services said it is extending the service to its debit cards. Cardholders who hold the company’s Cashback Debit Checking account are eligible for the new service, called Balance+. “With Balance+ we …

Cryptocurrency exchange and management provider Coinbase Inc. has won a $35.5-million contract to safeguard and trade digital assets on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service. The Service, a unit of the U.S. Department of Justice, is responsible for asset forfeitures arising from federal legal cases, including cases that involve recovery …

Decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court are supposed to settle matters, but a verdict the high court delivered early Monday has the potential to stir up debit card pricing questions for some time to come, some observers say. The justices, in a 6-3 decision, ruled a case brought by a …

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt shut down financial institutions for a week, called a “bank holiday,” to restore calm after a run on banks. This comes to mind after a federal judge recently indicated she won’t approve a settlement between the major card brands and merchants over the fees that …

Data from eMarketer, a research firm, indicates mobile payments at the point of sale in the U.S. market will total $670.5 billion this year, up 21.4% from 2023, and will grow nearly 19% to reach $797 billion in 2025. Volume will cross the $1-trillion mark in 2027, the firm predicts. SmartMetric …

The number of identity-theft cases fell last year, but criminals are getting savvier about how to win their victims’ confidence, with more of them relying on newer tools like artificial intelligence. And credit cards and other financial products remain a top target. That’s the mixed message from the Identity Theft …

Merchants are looking forward to making their case now that a judge has rejected a proposed settlement of their two-decades-long litigation with Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. over transaction costs. Late Tuesday morning, Margo K. Brodie, U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York, issued a written …

Groups representing Illinois financial institutions, along with the Electronic Payments Coalition, say they will fight to overturn the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, which was passed earlier this month and is set to go into effect July 1 next year. Opponents of the bill are continuing an ad campaign to …

With the judge in the massive credit card interchange litigation apparently insisting on a trial, a new and unsettling element of uncertainty now hangs over the nearly 20-year-old case, in which merchants allege anti-competitive behavior by the big credit card networks in setting interchange fees. The latest development comes nearly …