The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau named four merchant-acquiring companies as defendants in a lawsuit against six people and their associated debt-collection companies that allegedly attempted to collect millions of dollars in so-called “phantom debts” from consumers that the consumers either did not owe or were not owed to the debt …

Visa Inc.’s U.S. payment card issuers had about 48 million EMV chip cards in the market as of Dec. 31, a Visa executive said Wednesday. And, somewhat surprisingly, about 80% of the small number of U.S. EMV transactions today are coming from small merchants rather than big retailers, which are …

By Jim Daly A California independent sales organization called CardFlex Inc. and its two principals have settled federal charges that they allegedly processed more than $26 million in unauthorized charges for a company known as I Works. CardFlex strongly denied the FTC's charges and said it settled in order to …

A near-doubling of attempted wire-transfer fraud and strong corporate support for the chip-and-PIN variety of EMV card payments are among the highlights of the latest payments-fraud study from the Association for Financial Professionals. The recently released study by the Bethesda, Md.-based AFP, an association of corporate treasury managers and finance …

ShopKeep.com Inc., a provider of tablet-based point-of-sale technology, on Wednesday announced the formation of a new payments division built around its long-time independent sales organization partner, Payment Revolution LLC, which ShopKeep has acquired for an undisclosed price. Payment Revolution co-founder and chief executive Etie Hertz is now senior vice president …

American Express Co. and the U.S. Department of Justice submitted proposals Monday for rules changes conforming to a federal judge’s ruling that AmEx’s current ban on merchants steering customers to cheaper forms of payment violates antitrust law. The proposals show the two sides remain far apart, and AmEx reiterated that …

By Jim Daly Square Inc. on Monday introduced a business-oriented version of its Square Cash person-to-person payments service aimed at displacing checks. The merchant processor also unveiled so-called “$Cashtags,” which Square touts as a simple and fast way for people to get paid through Square Cash. Dubbed Cash Pro for …

By Jim Daly Target Corp.’s $10 million settlement of a consumer class action stemming from its late-2013 data breach is significant not only because of its size, but also because it signals that courts are becoming more attentive to the harm consumers suffer from data breaches even if the payment …

By Jim Daly Lawyers for Target Corp. and consumers affected by the big discount retailer’s 2013 data breach were scheduled to meet in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minn., today to review a proposed settlement under which Target will pay up to $10 million to customers who suffered financial …

By Jim Daly Legal U.S. marijuana sales grew 74% to $2.7 billion in 2014 from $1.5 billion the year before, but you wouldn’t know it by the payment card and other electronic payments generated by the budding industry, according to a new research report. Even though about 20 states have …