Law and Regulation

The number of publicly reported data breaches through the first half of 2025 totaled 1,732, up 5% from the same period a year ago, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Despite the year-over-year increase in breaches, the number of victim notices in the first half of 2025 totaled 165.7 …

American Express Co. said it is making more than $2,000 in statement credits available to holders of AmEx’s Business Platinum card. The move is part of an update to the company’s U.S. Consumer and Business Platinum cards, said by AmEx to be “the largest investment ever in a card refresh.”In related …

Chargebacks cost U.S. merchants more than $170 billion annually, according to Chargebacks911’s 2025 Cardholder Dispute Index. The average dollar value of a transaction disputed with a consumer’s bank over the prior 12 months was $84, a 10.5% increase from 2024. The top reason for chargebacks is unauthorized transactions on a …

An Illinois merchant’s allegations that Apple Inc., Mastercard Inc., and Visa Inc. worked to artificially maintain pricing by agreeing to funnel Apple Pay transactions via the two card networks was dismissed this week by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Filed in December …

The Federal Trade Commission’s negative option rule, or click to cancel rule, for subscription management, has been struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit because the FTC did not follow procedures for creating the rule, The Hill reported. The rule was set to start July 14, having been delayed …

Ripple’s chief executive said Wednesday the company applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter to support its stablecoin, RLUSD, which it introduced in December. The move, which Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse announced in a post on the social-media site X, follows …

Organizations representing the payments industry are coming out in support of the federal government’s move to eliminate paper checks for disbursements. Nacha, the governing body that oversees the ACH network, The Bank Policy Institute, The Clearing House Association, and the Consumer Bankers Association, have submitted comments to the Treasury Department …

In a move that could weave cryptocurrency more deeply into the fabric of the U.S. payments industry, Circle Internet Group Inc. announced late Monday it has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to form a national trust bank. The application, which seeks to establish what Circle …

A ruling in the United Kingdom could imperil the validity of multilateral interchange fees in the United Kingdom and Ireland assessed by Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc. A U.K. tribunal Friday ruled the fees infringe on competition law. The Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled the fees infringe on prohibitions to restrict, …

While fewer consumers reported identity crimes between April 2024 and March 2025 compared to the same time a year earlier, the number of consumers reporting multiple identity crimes increased, The Identity Theft Resource Center says. In its annual industry report, the IRTC says reports of identity crimes declined 31% to …