Law and Regulation

Zelle, the peer-to-peer payment network operated by Early Warning Services LLC, reported Thursday that consumers and businesses sent 2.3 billion in payments totaling $629 billion through the network in 2022. On a year-over-year basis, transaction volumes through Zelle increased 26%, and total transaction value increased 28%. Small businesses continue to be …

Industry opinions are mixed regarding a move by banking trade groups to plead for more time to act on a ruling issued in October by the Federal Reserve. The ruling orders all banks to comply by July 1 with an 11-year-old requirement that merchants have a choice of at least …

Georgia has joined a small but growing number of states that have introduced legislation to ban the portion of credit and debit card transaction fees that apply to sales tax. The Georgia bill, introduced late last week by Georgia state senator Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro), proposes prohibiting the fees from being …

A bill designed to allow merchants to have a choice of networks for routing credit card transactions failed to pass last year, but now international tensions could affect the proposed law’s prospects in the new Congress. The bill, called the Credit Card Competition Act, would mandate that merchants have a …

Seeking to improve merchant adoption of PINless debit transactions, the U.S. Payments Forum Monday released a white paper detailing the potential obstacles to PINless debit implementation in the United States and how they can be overcome. One advantage of PINless debit transactions is that they can be processed faster than PIN-based debit transactions, …

Observers have warned that an activist Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is likely to act on multiple fronts that involve the payments industry. Early Wednesday it released its latest proposal, a move to cut the $12 billion it estimates consumers pay annually in credit card late fees. While the proposal could …

Banking and payments professionals should watch for action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on key areas such as open banking, credit card late fees, fintech partnerships, and buy now, pay later plans, warns Strategic Resource Management, a consulting firm. American Express Co. released its American Express Business Blueprint, a digital cash flow management service …

The U.S. Department of Justice wants more information from Visa Inc. on its U.S. debit practices, a continuation of an investigation originally started in 2021. Visa disclosed the request in a Jan. 27 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing and said the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division made the request on …

Data breaches remained at near record levels in 2022, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s annual data breach report. The number of breaches totaled 1,802 last year, just 60 short of the all-time high recorded in 2021, making the total number of breaches in 2022 the second-highest on record. …

The Digital Dollar Project early Wednesday issued recommendations that include bigger investments by the federal government in researching a tokenized digital dollar. The group also called on the United States to exert leadership internationally in setting global standards for government-issued digital currencies even if the U.S. itself ultimately refrains from …