Law and Regulation

U.S. retail sales in the Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 period, excluding automotive, grew 7.6% compared to the same time in 2021, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse, which tracks in-store and online sales. E-commerce sales alone were up 10.6%. The calculation took account of all forms of payment but was not …

Some 12% of U.S. customers have lost money to fraud on a peer-to-peer payment network, while 11% have seen it happen to a family member, according to survey results released earlier this month by J.D. Power. The networks cited by the respondents were Zelle, Venmo, and PayPal. For the survey, …

Phishing attacks continue to set record highs. The third quarter of 2022 was the highest quarter on record for number of attacks, according to the latest Anti-Phishing Working Group’s Phishing Activity Trends report, released Wednesday. The APWG observed 1,270,883 phishing attacks during the September quarter, up 16% from a then-record …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has become a much more active regulator of payments and other financial industries since the onset of the Biden Administration, and on Monday the agency lent further momentum to that trend. The 11-year-old federal agency is now asking for public comment on a proposal that …

Prepaid card platform Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. launched its One4All gift card, a single gift card accepted at more than 100 merchants and restaurants. The card is issued by Pathward N.A., a unit of Pathward Financial. Matera, a Brazil-based instant payments and QR code payments company, opened an office in San Francisco …

American Express Co. announced AmEx Business Link, a business-to-business payments ecosystem for network issuing and acquiring clients to offer their business customers. Payments provider Newtek Business Services said it has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to close on its acquisition of the National Bank of New …

A prominent merchant trade group on Thursday began running a TV commercial that uses Visa Inc.’s sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup to decry credit card acceptance fees and advocate for a bill backed by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., that would regulate those costs. The 30-second commercial, which lays heavy …

Newtek Business Services Corp., a small-business lender and payment processor, has received approval from the Federal Reserve to become a bank-holding company and financial-holding company through its acquisition of National Bank of New York City. Newtek entered into an agreement to acquire the bank in August 2021. Approval of the …

The PCI Security Standards Council released its PCI Mobile Payments on COTS standard that addresses security requirements for services that enable merchants to accept cardholder PINs or contactless payments using a smart phone or other commercial off-the-shelf mobile device.Private equity firms Centerbridge Partners L.P. and Bridgeport Partners completed the acquisition of transaction processor Computer Services Inc. for $1.6 …

Varo Bank early Tuesday announced it has become the first digital neobank to be admitted to the Zelle peer-to-peer payments network. The bank, a unit of the 7-year-old, San Francisco-based Varo Money Inc., said it will now offer payments via Zelle through its mobile app. “Adding Zelle to our product …