We couldn’t recruit David Letterman to help us with this article, but what follows are the Top 10 U.S. payments events of 2013 as identified by the Retail Payments Risk Forum, a research and industry-dialogue unit at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
10. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized money-transfer rules to implement Section 1073 of 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act.
9. Regulators increased their scrutiny of third-party processors and high-risk business customers.
8. Fraudsters launched major global ATM cash-out attacks that affected many U.S. ATMs and resulted in $45 million in losses.
7. The Federal Trade Commission proposed banning telemarketers from using remotely created checks and payment orders.
6. Debit networks sought a compromise on an EMV (Europay-MasterCard-Visa) chip card interface—while there was little movement on the issuance of EMV cards.
5. The U.S. Treasury Department released its newly designed $100 bill with additional security features.
4. Several major data breaches occurred (most recently at Target Corp.), and identity-theft occurrences skyrocketed.
3. Cyber Monday online sales jumped 17%, with mobile phones and tablets representing almost a third of the total.
2. Virtual currencies gained increased public, legislative, and regulatory awareness after the U.S. Department of Justice took action to close down virtual-currency operators Liberty Reserve and Silk Road.
1. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon threw out the Federal Reserve Board’s debit card interchange fees and routing rules implementing Dodd-Frank’s Durbin Amendment.
Forum members also identified some major payments issues they’ll be following in 2014:
• As regulators continue to monitor the virtual-currency market, will the usage of digital currency as a legitimate medium of exchange expand among merchants?
• Will 2014 finally be the “Year of the Mobile Payment?” What progress will be made in addressing the awareness, security, and education aspects of mobile payments?
• With online and mobile commerce showing no signs of slowing down, what authentication solutions will be widely adopted to prevent card-not-present fraud?
• How will merchants and card issuers implement EMV chip cards?
• What effects will the regulatory attention on third parties and high-risk businesses have on the due-diligence practices of financial institutions?
The full 2013 listing and issues for the upcoming year can be found on the Atlanta Fed’s Portals and Rails blog.