After years of ever-tightening regulation in payments and other financial services, it comes as a relief to witness some of the encouraging steps Congress and the Trump administration are taking to unshackle innovation. As our Acquiring story starting on page 20 documents, movement is afoot on a broad front to …

What role government regulators should play as financial-technology companies increasingly challenge banks with new services for consumers and merchants is generating more debate in the electronic-payments industry. At a forum Tuesday, regulators said they want to encourage innovation while protecting consumers, but an executive with an online business lender argued …

After chastising the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for way it handled itself in its 2015 lawsuit against allegedly fraudulent debt collectors and their payment processors, a federal judge on Friday threw out the CFPB’s claims against the processors. The case is unusual in that Judge Richard W. Story of U.S. …

By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews The new Trump administration injects much uncertainty into U.S. business, with payments being no exception, but a panel of experts on Thursday said the net result should be positive for at least the acquiring side of the market. “If Hillary Clinton had won, we would have been …

Generally, the prospects for overweening regulation and lawless intervention are dimmer, and that’s a good thing. A healthy and innovative financial-services and payments industry is vital for economic growth. Yet, for the last eight years, Washington’s boot has been on its throat. It’s been battered by the Card Act, Dodd-Frank …

With Republicans now in full control of Washington, big changes could be in the offing for laws and regulations affecting electronic payments. But then again, maybe not. Some say he’s a nominal one, but incoming President Donald Trump officially is a Republican, and when he’s inaugurated Jan. 20 he’ll be …

In the age of the payment facilitator, merchant-vetting practices are taking on an even bigger role. As the payment-facilitator model develops and finds favor among a new set of companies offering payments services to merchants, it shares one age-old element with traditional merchant services. That is the need to check …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews The Third Party Payment Processors Association is stepping in to lend support to Operation Choke Point, a federal government initiative targeting high-risk merchants via their payments providers. The

• A status conference in the massive credit card interchange case known as MDL 1720 is set for Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the wake of the $5.7 billion settlement in the case being overturned by an appellate court June 30. The case is returning to …

An acquiring group at heart, the Electronic Transactions Association adapts to changing business models and payments technologies. But has it outgrown its base among grassroots ISOs? Now in its 26th year, the Electronic Transactions Association may be in the midst of one of its most transformative periods yet. The Washington, …