Law and Regulation

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 …

Citing the business disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Visa Inc. announced late Tuesday that it will delay until next April most of the interchange rate changes it had planned for July. The network also publicly confirmed the six-month postponement of its EMV liability shift for fuel pumps, and further …

Visa Inc. has informed petroleum retailers that it will delay its planned EMV fuel-pump liability shift set for October until April 17, 2021, the convenience-store trade group NACS disclosed Friday. “The network’s delay was in response to letters NACS sent on behalf of its retail members to the four global …

Payments fraud was already rising, and now experts predict increased online usage brought on by stay-at-home orders will only exacerbate the trend. While losses haven’t shown up yet, e-commerce activity taking place now is sowing the seeds of a dramatic jump in coming months. “Fraud is always a trailing activity,” …

Under pressure for months from governments and regulators worldwide, the Libra cryptocurrency venture has applied for a key payments-system license and changed course on a number of its prime strategies, including setting out new plans for single-currency stablecoins and a stronger compliance regime. FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator, confirmed Thursday …

U.S. retail sales for March decreased 8.7% from February, according to figures released by the Census Bureau. One bright spot was a 28% increase in sales at food and beverage stores from March 2019. Clothing and clothing accessories store sales were down 50.7%.Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) said it is supporting …

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have postponed their planned U.S. interchange revisions until July, but when these changes do take effect the net impact on merchants will be deep, according to an analysis released by CMSPi, an Atlanta-based global merchant payments consultancy. Indeed, the new pricing planned by the two …

The good news is that attempted and actual payments fraud declined last year. The bad news is it went down only a tick and remains very close to the all-time high, according to the latest report from the Association for Financial Professionals, a Bethesda, Md.-based trade group for companies across …

Contactless payments already capture a big share of point-of-sale purchases in Canada, and that share is sure to grow with recent announcements by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. that they are raising their contactless transaction limits to C$250 to limit the handling of cards that could spread the coronavirus, according …