Law and Regulation

Visa Inc.’s net income jumped by a third in the quarter ended June 30, a period when the leading payment card network’s global transaction volume rose nearly 12% and the company completed or announced several acquisitions to broaden its franchise. Visa chairman and chief executive Alfred F. Kelly Jr. told …

A hearing is set for today on two bills pending in the Massachusetts Legislature that would repeal the state’s decades-old ban on cashless stores. If passed, the bipartisan legislation, which is drawing fire from the ATM industry, would put Massachusetts at odds with efforts this year in a number of …

Equifax Inc., which in 2017 sustained a data breach that potentially exposed sensitive information related to 148 million files, on Monday announced what that massive intrusion will cost the company. The Atlanta-based credit-reporting agency said it will pay $671 million as part of an agreement to settle multidistrict class-action litigation …

The Federal Trade Commission said payment processor Allied Wallet, its CEO and owner Ahmad “Andy” Khawaja, and two company officers agreed to settle FTC charges that they assisted numerous scams by knowingly processing fraudulent transactions that took more than $110 million from consumers’ account.The two-day Amazon Prime Day event this week sold more than 175 …

Facebook Inc.’s Calibra wallet will generate revenue for its parent by stimulating incremental advertising but the proposed Libra cryptocurrency will also work with competing wallet apps, the company’s point man for Calibra said Tuesday. David Marcus, head of Calibra for the huge social network, said in prepared remarks that the new …

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. may be making significant progress in their bid to simplify and speed their aged and cumbersome chargeback processes through automation, rules changes, and some key acquisitions, experts contend. The biggest gains in chargeback efficiency are expected to come when Visa and Mastercard launch real-time communications …

Some 33 consumer and public-policy groups sent a letter Tuesday to five Congressional committees and federal regulators asking for a moratorium on the Facebook Inc.-backed Libra cryptocurrency. “We call on Congress and regulators to impose a moratorium on Facebook’s Libra and related plans until the profound questions raised by the …

In a decision that could have far-reaching implications for the merchant-acquiring industry, a U.S. District Court judge has ordered independent sales organization Electronic Merchant Systems to pay more than $5.4 million in breach-of-contract damages to a sales agent. The decision arises from a dispute over residuals and the interpretation of …

While most North American payments fraud is related to identity and organized crime, one area—terrorism—stands out in this region compared to other developed markets. Eight percent of the 154 criminals cases reviewed by information-security firm Terbium Labs in its “The Next Generation of Criminal Financing: How Payment Fraud Funds Transnational …

A new analysis of 10 years’ worth of figures on data breaches reveals that California by far holds the dubious distinction of suffering the most breaches as well as leaking the most records. Meanwhile, a Florida city has agreed to pay hackers about $600,000 in Bitcoin to be released from …