Law and Regulation

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 …

While legislators and regulators focused much of their attention on the Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency this week, tariffs on Chinese-made goods re-emerged in Washington as a threat that could raise prices for merchants and merchant acquirers. The Electronic Transactions Association payments trade group filed comments with the Office of the United States …

EMV chip card payments made substantial gains in the U.S. last year, but the nation still lags most other regions in EMV penetration, according to new figures from payment card standards body EMVCo. Some 53.5% of general-purpose U.S. card-present transactions in 2018 were so-called chip-on-chip, meaning both the point-of-sale terminal …

The Facebook-led announcement of the Libra cryptocurrency is evoking blowback both in the United States and overseas. House Financial Services Committee chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) called for Facebook to halt the planned launch of Libra until Congress has had a chance to hold hearings on the cryptocurrency. Elsewhere, the governor …

Facebook Inc. is expected to release details this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday, on its Libra cryptocurrency initiative, but for now what’s known about the project has at least some experts shaking their heads. “Why a cryptocurrency, and why Facebook?” asks Tim Sloane, who follows digital currencies as vice …

The debut of cashless stores has led to pushback by several cities, the state of New Jersey, and a member of Congress concerned that card or mobile-payments-only options will leave cash-dependent consumers unable to shop in such stores. Now, new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta concludes that …