September, 2025

• 1 September

  Sorting Winners From Losers in Debit

  

  With merchants prevailing in their long-running legal battle to overturn debit rate caps set by the Federal Reserve, the largest debit card issuers could wind up the biggest losers, while Capital One Financial Corp. emerges as the big winner. U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota Judge Daniel …
• 1 September

  Payments 3.0: Who Owns the Data Shared Through Open Banking?

  

  A moonshiner’s case from almost 50 years ago could have an effect on the future of open banking. In 1973, firemen and a sheriff’s department responding to a warehouse fire found a 7,500-gallon-capacity distillery and 175 gallons of whiskey. The problem was no one had paid any taxes on the …

August, 2025

• 1 August

  QR Codes Make a Real Time Splash

  

  QR code payments have taken a big step towards becoming not only a mainstream payment option but also one that can accelerate the adoption of real-time payments. Early last month, the technology was used to facilitate a transaction over the FedNow network using the X9 standard. The demonstration transferred funds in …
• 1 August

  Payments 3.0: A Lighter Touch Doesn’t Mean You Can Ignore Regulators

  

  The payments industry expected the new administration to bring with it a wave of deregulation, but the reality seems to be a little different from the expectation. Under the leadership of Russell Vought, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has withdrawn 67 guidance documents since January. This includes eight policy statements, seven …
• 1 August

  Security Notes: Buying a Dollar for Eighty Cents

  

  I challenge you to make sense out of the title of this column! It is a vision of the near future, discounted dollars for sale. The catch: you pay 80 untethered cents to buy a tethered dollar. What does it mean? The government offers the public a chance to pay …

July, 2025

• 1 July

  Payments 3.0: For Banks, New Threats, New Opportunities

  

  Banks’ position at the center of the U.S. payments system is under siege. New business arrangements, new regulations, and even new legislation seem to be looking to push financial institutions to the sidelines. Before now, banks and credit unions seemed to have a comfortable spot where they were needed to …
• 1 July

  Security Notes: Tomorrow’s Money

  

  Most of the digital coins today should be slapped with a federal warning label, akin to the federally mandated warning on cigarettes: “This coin (e.g. Bitcoin) is at risk of sudden death” should its mathematical foundation crumble—which it will, but nobody knows when. However, the next generation of digital coins …
• 1 July

  Tap-to-Pay: What Comes Next

  

  Ever since the card industry launched technology that lets merchants process transactions through an off-the-shelf mobile device, companies have worked to refine the idea further. Now, consumers can look forward to making remote purchases with a tap on their phone’s screen when they see something they want, according to payments …

June, 2025

• 1 June

  Stripe Taps Verifone For a Major Card-Present Move

  

  Verifone Inc. announced last month it will work with Stripe Inc. to enable Stripe’s payments services on Verifone point-of-sale devices. The move brings e-commerce giant Stripe further into the business of card-present processing and represents Verifone’s latest move to collaborate with major e-commerce payments players. It also follows a recent …
• 1 June

  Security Notes: New Pope, New Money

  

  Bitcoin has given us definitive proof that money operates on public trust, whether rational or irrational. Quite a few people realized this strange fact and issued coins that are based on thin air but are supported on slick, smart, sweeping campaigns, enriching the issuer. The extended realization from this trust-centered …