Law and Regulation

With chargeback costs poised to grow an estimated 52% by 2023 for U.S. payment card issuers alone, issuers as well as merchants and merchant acquirers have every incentive to reduce those costs. And one way they could do it is by providing more transaction detail on consumers’ online credit card …

Varo Money Inc., a 5-year-old mobile-banking and payments startup that’s closing in on a national banking charter, raised $241 million in a Series D round that closed Tuesday. The round, co-led by Gallatin Point Capital and The Rise Fund, will help the San Francisco-based Varo expand its financial-product offerings and …

The Federal Trade Commission this week announced a settlement with an independent sales organization that processed $80 million in payments for “My Online Business Education,” or MOBE, a business-coaching and investment opportunity the FTC deemed fraudulent and shut down in 2018. Under an order and permanent injunction in U.S. District Court …

It was easy to lose track of it in the midst of all the impacts of the novel coronavirus, but a crucial federal lawsuit filed six months ago still hangs over the payments industry, carrying far-reaching implications for nearly all players. It’s PayPal Holdings Inc.’s  action against the Consumer Financial Protection …

Shift4 Payments Inc.’s pending initial public offering took a step forward Monday when the merchant processor filed an amended prospectus stating it plans to sell 15 million shares of common stock at a range of $19 to $21 per share. At the maximum price, the sale would yield $315 million …

Point-of-sale lender LendingUSA LLC launched an instant ID-verification capability, which involves applicants using a smart phone to take and transmit photos of government-issued ID cards and selfie photos. The company says its merchant base exceeds 8,000 nationally.A startup called Skyflow said it has raised $7.5 million in a seed funding round aimed at developing …

Fiserv Inc. and the former head of an independent sales organization will pay $40.2 million to settle charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission stemming from alleged illegal actions committed by the ISO from 2012 to 2014 while it obtained processing services from First Data Merchant Services, whose parent company …

All four card brands have now delayed for the second time their EMV liability shifts for automated fuel dispensers with Mastercard Inc.’s Monday announcement it would postpone its shift until April 16. The original shift was to have taken place in October 2017, but was deferred until October 2020. Along …

Payments providers and acquirers are having to quickly adjust to evolving risk practices as chargeback volume and return rates change during the nationwide Covid-19 containment. That’s important because the Federal Trade Commission, in particular, is using these two metrics as potential indicators of misdeeds, advised panelists Wednesday in the “Regulatory …

Payment card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. said first-quarter sales of credit and debit cards rose 22% from a year earlier to $59.8 million, driven in part by strong demand for dual-interface EMV cards that support contactless payments. The company reported first-quarter net income of $2.42 million versus a loss of $3.06 …