January, 2024

• 1 January

  Security Notes: How AI Escrow Is Creating Global Trust

  

  What comes first, the payment or the service, the money or the merchandise? It is best when they happen simultaneously, but this is not always possible. The seller says, “Pay me now and trust me to deliver later.” The buyer says, “Deliver now, and trust me to pay later.” If …
• 1 January

  FedNow’s Rising Adoption Buoys Its Biggest Rival

  

  A big movement among financial institutions to join the Federal Reserve’s FedNow real-time payments network appears to be benefiting its biggest competitor. “Ever since FedNow launched, we’ve seen a surge of interest in real-time payments,” says a spokesman for the Real Time Payments network, operated by The Clearing House Payments …
• 1 January

  Payments 3.0: Regulators Open the Floodgates

  

  Payments and banking regulators have released a flood of proposed regulations—with more to come—that could reshape the industry and the way consumers access it. Government-relations teams across the financial-services industry have been hard at work trying to digest what all of these rules could mean for their businesses and the …

December, 2023

• 1 December

  Acquirers Seek Answers from a Visa Surcharging Executive

  

  More than 10 years after Visa Inc. wrote its rules permitting surcharging on its credit cards, questions remain among acquirers, especially those selling or considering surcharge programs for their merchants. Now, as more merchants mull surcharge or cash-discount programs to alleviate some of their card-acceptance costs, and with recent changes …
• 1 December

  Security Notes: How Digital Payments Can Combat Antisemitism

  

  Payments is an ever-present social activity that reflects values, preferences, and customs. Hence, by imposing payment dynamics, one can achieve social change—especially so when payment has migrated to cyberspace, first as a mirror of material money and soon as a cyber-native digital coin. The possibilities are far-reaching, waiting for a …
• 1 December

  Payments 3.0: The Fed’s Dubious Debit Proposal

  

  The latest round in the fight over interchange fees began Oct. 25. That’s when the Federal Reserve released its latest proposal on debit interchange. To recap, the Fed’s proposed rule would reduce the interchange that banks with more than $10 billion in assets would receive when their customers pay with …

November, 2023

• 1 November

  Payments 3.0: A Supreme Reprieve for the CFPB?

  

  After last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s future seems more secure. On Oct. 3, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America. The CFSA originally sued the CFPB over its payday-lending rule in 2018. As previously reported in Digital …
• 1 November

  Security Notes: With CBDCs, Be Very Careful Indeed

  

  Digital-money technology is irresistible, and its impact is going to be much more profound than we can imagine. Money—an entity of transactable value formed by faith, not by per se value— may be seen as the mother of all inventions. It allows inventors to invent rather than get bogged down …
• 1 November

  Goldman Faces Some Hard Decisions in Credit Cards

  

  The pressure at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to exit, or at least radically modify, its consumer-credit and payments businesses has been mounting and may have hit its summit. At least some executives at the company are pushing senior management to exit credit card deals with Apple Inc. and General Motors …

October, 2023

• 1 October

  Parking Is the First Stop for Hyundai Pay

  

  Step one for Hyundai Pay, the in-car payment service debuting in the 2024 Kona crossover, is enabling payments for parking while sitting in the driver’s seat. Step two is broadening its capabilities and making it an integral part of the vehicle, says Olabisi Boyle, Hyundai Motor North America’s vice president …