Law and Regulation

Illinois merchants scored a big victory late Tuesday in their battle for interchange relief as United States District Court Judge Virginia Kendall upheld the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act. The decision, which comes after more than a year of legal wrangling, means the IFPA will go into effect July 1, …

Block Inc.’s Square point-of-sale unit announced the launch of SquareAI in the United Kingdom. The technology, which Square says is free to merchants, offers conversational AI intended to help business owners interpret their data and arrive at decisions faster. Payments provider Blue Payment Agency Inc. expanded its focus to help e-commerce sites, especially those …

Plans to attach an amended version of the Credit Card Competition Act to a cryptocurrency-infrastructure bill were shelved Thursday, effectively leaving two versions of the bill floating around Congress. The CCCA was amended late last week to include a provision that called for enforcement of the CCCA under antitrust law, …

Mastercard Inc. grew its fourth-quarter net revenue by double digits in the face of a market that has forced payments companies to wrestle with a slew of knotty considerations, including the potential impact of a major bill that would cap credit card rates and the dizzying effect of fast moves …

The Merchants Payments Coalition released a letter from it and 350 merchant groups in support of the Credit Card Competition Act urging that the bill be attached to a proposed cryptocurrency marketplace structure legislation. The measure is expected to be discussed Tuesday by the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. The New England Automated …

Equifax Inc. early Friday launched an application to identify synthetic identity fraud. The app, known as Synthetic Identity Risk, uses artificial intelligence to analyze identity data, credit histories, and behavioral signals to determine whether an account belongs to a synthetic identity. Synthetic identities, which criminals use to open credit card …

Some renters using the Esusu Inc. platform to build their credit may have a new option to break their monthly rent payments into smaller portions via a partnership Esusu formed with Affirm Holdings Inc. Affirm, a longstanding buy now, pay later and installment loan provider, is available to building owners …

PayPal Holdings Inc. has agreed to acquire Cymbio Ltd., a payments-orchestration platform, with a closing expected in the first half of the year. Terms were not disclosed. Lightspeed Commerce Inc. announced Lightspeed AI along with a number of other new services. The AI service is aimed at aiding merchants in decision making …

Abrigo Inc., a provider of credit risk, compliance, and lending solutions for financial institutions, announced early Wednesday the launch of Abrigo Fraud Detection for ACH. The solution detects fraud for inbound automated clearing house transactions, ACH check deposits, wire payments, and ACH origination and receipt. Support for additional payment types …