Law and Regulation

PayPal Holdings Inc. might buy the Pinterest social media company for approximately $45 billion in what would be the tech industry’s biggest takeover of 2021, Bloomberg reported.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued an order to Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Square asking for information on how they use personal payment data …

An increase in the limit on what contactless cardholders in the United Kingdom can spend before they are required to authenticate themselves is raising questions about whether the new mandate will prompt consumers to shun their cards in favor of mobile wallets, which have no per transaction limit. The theory is …

One of the first moves to bring a payment system not controlled by Apple Inc. to Apple’s App Store emerged Thursday and follows a landmark federal-court ruling last month. Paddle Ltd., a London-based payments provider, said it will begin offering the alternative Dec. 7, in line with the terms of …

Purchase scams, in which consumers pay for goods that never arrive, was the number-one fraud type in the second quarter in terms of card-fraud attempts, beating out social-engineering frauds, according to fraud-prevention firm Feedzai. The top city for overall fraud attempts was Las Vegas, with fraud up 411% in the quarter …

Stronger authentication for voice-activated payments, as well as streamlined identity checks and support for a wider array of authentication technologies for online payments generally, are included in the latest version of EMVCo’s 3-D Secure standard, the global payments-standards body said Wednesday. EMVCo said its new update, version 2.3, responds to …

AppsFlyer, a marketing measurement platform, said e-commerce retail app installations increased 55% on Android devices and 32% on iOS devices in 2021 in its latest “State of eCommerce App Marketing” report. In-app spending is up 35% and could increase to 42% by November.Payments-technology provider GK Software said it has completed an installation …

Payments observers are expecting a tougher regulatory approach from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with the confirmation on Thursday of Rohit Chopra as executive director of the 10-year old federal agency. “The agency will likely return to the days of director Cordray,” predicts one close observer who asked not to …

American Express Co. said it is working with Extend, a virtual card specialist, to expand its virtual card options for U.S. businesses.Gift card provider Factor4 LLC said it is work with SavorConnect, a cloud-based integration platform, to make its gift cards that can used online, in stores, and with mobile devices available on …

The First National Bank of Omaha launched a buy now, pay later service that enables merchants to offer installment payments to consumers. FNBO tapped EXL, an operations management and analytics company, and Skeps, a point-of-sale loan originations platform, to help develop the service. The BNPL service can be integrated into e-commerce Web …

U.S. payments networks continue to cultivate their connections to what is for them a potentially massive market in China. In the latest development, Leshua Technology announced early Friday it will support acquiring for American Express Co.’s joint venture in China.  AmEx last year became the first foreign payments company to win …