Law and Regulation

Discover Financial Services reported its payment-services volume totaled $69.7 billion in the third quarter, up 11% year-over-year. Volume on the Pulse debit network increased 16% to $55 billion owing to larger average spending due to the pandemic and to the lift from stimulus funds.Payments provider PaymentCloud Inc. said it acquired contactless technology startup …

PayPal Holdings Inc. announced a service that allows account holders to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency directly from their account. The company also said it will make cryptocurrency available as a funding source for purchases at the 26 million merchants worldwide that accept PayPal.Payments provider FIS Inc. said it added pharmacy chain Walgreens …

Because of Covid-19, many employees who have access to payments data are working from home, making it awkward if not impossible for data-security assessors to conduct onsite inspections. In response, the PCI Security Standards Council says it plans to make the next version of its data-security standard more reflective of …

The announcement from the Federal Reserve late Monday of a pilot for the FedNow real-time payments service may represent an important stage in the development of a service not expected to go live until 2023 at the earliest. But observers caution rival services have already made headway with key market …

PCI Pal, whose services enable businesses to collect payments in accordance with the PCI Security Standards Council data-security rules, announced a link-up with payments provider Stripe Inc. to allow Stripe clients to more quickly deploy PCI Pal’s technology.Paya Inc. said UtilityBilling.com, a subscription billing and payment platform, integrated Paya’s processing service.PlusPass, …

With gas stations and convenience stores feeling the economic pinch from the slowdown in sales caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty over the economy, Transaction Network Services Inc. announced a new pricing structure to help cut station owners’ telecom-network installation costs for EMV at the pump. Transaction Networks Services (TNS) …

New research from Kount Inc. showed that 57% of consumers expect to use credit cards as their payment choice in the 2020 holiday season. That compares with merchants who expect credit cards to be used 84% of the time. Debit card use is closer, at 65% for consumers and 70% for merchants. …

Nacha has approved eight amendments to its operating rules governing the use of ACH payments. The amendments were approved as part of Nacha’s strategy to modernize the ACH network through infrastructure improvements and to make ACH payments easier to initiate for consumers, businesses, and other organizations. The new rules are …

There is no doubt that the pandemic has pushed the United States into a major economic decline. Many Americans are still out of work and interest rates have taken a nosedive. While some government stimulus plans have kicked in, that alone won’t be enough to make a full recovery.  We …

As the deadline inches closer for gas stations and convenience stores with fuel pumps to install in-pump EMV card readers, the good news is that c-stores are making steady progress. Overall, 31% of c-stores report not having any pump EMV-ready, down from 52% in the spring and 70% in 2019, …