Law and Regulation

Surcharges on credit card transactions could pick up momentum now that only four states effectively ban the practice, a panel of experts indicated Wednesday at a merchant-acquiring trade show. That momentum may benefit not only merchants wary of card-acceptance costs but also merchant-service providers that focus on surcharging as a …

The hotly competitive arena of integrated payments has prompted PointOS, a hospitality software developer, to register as an independent sales organization to gain better control over payment services it offers. The company, which serves customers, announced its ISO registration this week and calls its service PointOS Payments. “We became an …

Bitcoin ATM deployer Bitcoin Depot said its network now includes more than 500 machines worldwide, with more than 100 in the Atlanta area. The company projects it will have more than 1,000 Bitcoin ATMS by the end of 2020.Lael Brainard, a Federal Reserve Board governor, said in a Wednesday speech that the Fed, …

Australian financial regulators might intervene to stop banks from automatically routing contactless debit card payments to the Visa and Mastercard networks and instead give merchants the option of using the country’s EFTPOS network, Reuters reported.RevSpring Financial Services, a provider of collections-support services for health-care firms and other companies, debuted eVokePay, a payment …

Visa Inc. reportedly is planning interchange rate changes that could raise merchants’ acceptance costs for card-not-present transactions but lower costs in some other categories, including purchases at big grocery-store chains. Citing a Visa document circulating among the network’s client banks, the Bloomberg news service reported Tuesday that interchange for a …

One often overlooked market for mobile payments is sports betting, and now some payments providers are wagering that the segment is about to get hot with the ongoing rollout of 5G mobile-network connectivity. “We would urge sports-betting operators to be ready for the increased traffic on their platforms. It’s a …

Small businesses using Square Inc. will be able to use turnkey UPS shipping services integrated into Square Online Store, the acquirer’s e-commerce platform, UPS announced. The Square-UPS deal includes special shipping rates that could be up to 55% off UPS daily rates.Amazon.com Inc. reported it now has more than 150 million Prime members …

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Task Force on Financial Technology held a hearing Thursday morning titled “Is Cash Still King? Reviewing the Rise of Mobile Payments.” Witnesses included representatives from PayPal, the U.S. Faster Payments Council, the Brookings Institute, Consumer Reports, and a New York City non-profit dedicated to financial …

The criminals behind ransomware attacks are becoming dramatically bolder. The average payment demanded in fourth-quarter attacks reached $84,116, more than double the average sum in the third quarter, according to the latest data from Coveware Inc., a Westport, Conn.-based cybersecurity firm that tracks data from cases it has handled. Worse …

New York City became the third U.S. city to ban cashless-only payments in restaurants and stores with the passage Thursday of a measure to prohibit merchants from refusing to accept cash. San Francisco and Philadelphia have similar bans, as does the state of New Jersey.  Originally proposed by New York …