Law and Regulation

You’d almost think it was 2010 all over again, given the current fights about the Durbin Amendment, the section of that year’s Dodd-Frank Act that regulates debit card interchange and transaction routing. Oral arguments are set for Oct. 3 in a retailer lawsuit that seeks to have a court order …

Merchant plaintiffs and the payment card network and bank defendants should return to the bargaining table and hammer out a new solution to the credit card interchange litigation for which they announced a proposed settlement July 13. That’s the conclusion of Aite Group LLC in releasing results of its recent …

Numerous merchants and merchant groups have publicly declared their opposition to a controversial proposed settlement to the big credit card interchange litigation pending in federal court. In hopes of turning the settlement into a political issue, nine trade associations on Thursday took their beefs about it to Congress. In a …

The National Retail Federation announced on Tuesday that it is ready go to court to challenge the controversial proposed settlement to a massive group of merchant lawsuits against the bank card networks and some leading banks over card interchange. The NRF’s entry into the fray is the latest indication of …

For electronic currency provider Bitcoin, 2012 is proving to be a problematic year. In March, a well-known Bitcoin trading platform, Bitcoinica, announced a security breach in which hackers stole 43,554 Bitcoins. In May, a Federal Bureau of Investigation report warned that criminals could use Bitcoin for illicit purposes. And later …

MasterCard Inc. reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that indicate continuing gains in its debit card business, and in PIN debit in particular, in the wake of federal debit regulations that forced issuers to add new networks to the cards they issue. MasterCard’s gains in debit come in the wake of …

The Durbin debit numbers are out, and they aren’t pretty for Visa Inc., the leading debit card player in the U.S. Visa on Wednesday reported that U.S. debit payments volume plummeted 9.8% in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 ended June 30, hitting $266 billion versus $294 billion a year …

With each passing day, the proposed settlement of the giant antitrust suit over credit card interchange and card network rules appears to unravel even more as big-box merchants increasingly express dissatisfaction with the $7-billion-plus deal. The latest is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which issued a statement on Tuesday opposing the agreement …

More evidence of widespread merchant antipathy to the credit card interchange settlement announced July 13 emerged late Friday when big-box retailer Target Corp. came out against the plan. Industry observers expect more opposition from merchants to emerge, casting doubt on the settlement’s future. But a lobbying group for payment card …

n n n n n Blow’s comments before the regional ISO trade group came just a day after the CFBP announced its first public enforcement action, one that targeted the issuing side of the credit card business. The CFPB issued an order requiring a bank subsidiary of the big issuer …