September, 2024

• 1 September

  Security Notes: Payment Tech And the Migrant Crisis

  

  The United States has admitted close to 20 million migrants just since 2020. Most are penniless, and receive payment cards to enjoy a dinner and a pillow. But abuse is rampant, crime is spreading, and the government is losing control. Migrants are a global problem affecting all developed countries. Human …
• 1 September

  Processing Fees Are the Cost Merchants Should Fight, Some Say

  

  Merchants’ disdain for interchange is well documented, but one aspect of card-acceptance costs that gets drowned out by the outcry over interchange is that rising processing fees are hitting merchants harder than interchange hikes, according to some observers. Processors’ rate hikes have been running between 0.25% and 1.5% in recent …

July, 2024

• 1 July

  Security Notes: Payments in the Age of AI

  

  Just before his early death in 1957, John von Neumann designed a self-reproducing automata. The brightest mathematician of the 20th century, von Neuman realized the implications of his design and attempted to hide it from the public. A self-reproducing entity can spawn “children” entities (copies) marked by random mutations that …
• 1 July

  Payments 3.0: Can Fintechs Control Their Destiny?

  

  A new regulatory framework is coming to fintech. While none of the regulators has proposed a new rule yet, my prediction is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will create a new regulation that will apply directly to fintechs. This will be done to address concerns that come from relying …
• 1 July

  The Big Credit Card Settlement Appears Headed for a Trial. Who Will Win?

  

  With the judge in the massive credit card interchange litigation apparently insisting on a trial, a new and unsettling element of uncertainty now hangs over the nearly 20-year-old case, in which merchants allege anti-competitive behavior by the big credit card networks in setting interchange fees. The latest development emerged in …

June, 2024

• 1 June

  Payments 3.0: Time for Second Thoughts on Fintechs

  

  Sometimes the best advice is counterintuitive, which is why I think that payments executives need to slow down and get back to basics. When technology is adding new options and speeding everything up, it is easy to fall into a habit of being reactive as each new thing comes up. …
• 1 June

  Security Notes: Privacy for Sale

  

  The Biden administration dashes ahead with an interdepartmental effort to design a digital dollar, following the European Union and China, which are very excited about the tight surveillance power given to government through the emerging technology of digital money. The U.S. effort, which was kicked off by a presidential executive …
• 1 June

  The Fed Touches Off the Latest Interchange Battle

  

  The National Retail Federation and the Merchants Payments Coalition have lined up against the Federal Reserve, arguing that while a rate reduction on debit card transactions is welcome, the Fed’s proposed pricing does not go far enough. The two industry trade groups sent letters to the Fed last month on …

May, 2024

• 1 May

  Behind a Card Industry Group’s Strategy to Stop the CCCA

  

  A trade group representing card networks and issuers is taking aim at restaurant surcharges and price increases by large grocers as part of its efforts to defeat the Credit Card Competition Act. The Electronic Payments Coalition earlier this spring fired its first salvo in its new campaign against the CCCA. …
• 1 May

  Security Notes: AI, Privacy, and the End of Credit Cards—Again

  

  The initial penetration was slow. The original Diner’s Club credit card of 1949 was too different to quickly catch on. But it had a compelling message, as the historic burden of trusting the customer was shifted away from the merchant, a service for which the merchant was willing to pay. …