Law and Regulation

Merchant processor Elavon rolled out its self-test platform for providers of payment hardware and software developers to streamline needed certification processes from the card networks and for EMV chip card acceptance; Elavon says the platform can reduce previous four-week certification times to 24 to 48 hours and eliminate the need …

The co-defendant in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s insider-trading lawsuit against former Heartland Payment Systems Inc. chief executive Robert O. Carr will pay $528,608 to the SEC under a settlement approved Thursday by a federal judge. Katherine M. Hanratty, described as Carr’s long-time girlfriend, neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s …

The word “regulation” generates little enthusiasm in the merchant-acquiring industry, but it’s more palatable when “self” is the operative adjective rather than “government.” Thus, the Electronic Transactions Association is pushing its new Self-Regulation Program for acquirers, independent sales organizations, and payment facilitators. Launched early this month, the voluntary program requires …

Déjà vu, anyone? Similar to its now-moot predecessor agreement from 2012, the proposed $6.24 billion monetary-damages settlement in a big credit card interchange antitrust case announced Tuesday by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. is drawing diverging reviews from merchants. Based on anecdotal comments and the history of the earlier settlement, …

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. announced early Tuesday that they and defendant banks have agreed to settle for $6.24 billion merchants’ monetary claims stemming from 13-year-old litigation over credit card interchange. Today’s announcements represent the second settlement of the sweeping class action known as MDL 1720 pending in U.S. District …

Surcharges and discounts for cash aren’t brand-new pricing tactics, but interest in them by independent sales organizations is rising because of falling legal barriers and the potential profits. Repeated sessions about the topic were packed Thursday at the Western States Acquirers Association annual conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. The presenter was Ryan …

The first commercial implementation of 3-D Secure 2.0, an online fraud-prevention tool, appears to be here. Processor Adyen N.V. announced Friday the launch of its 3DS 2.0 service, claiming it is the first to be available to merchants. 3-D Secure 2.0 is an EMVCo-maintained standard that aims to curb online …

In its latest update about the U.S. conversion from magnetic-stripe to EMV chip cards, Visa Inc. said more than 3.1 million merchant locations accepted chip cards as of June versus only 392,000 in September 2015. The number of Visa chip cards increased 214% in that time to 499.7 million. Some …

Reacting to violent clashes a year ago in Charlottesville, Va., between white supremacist groups and counter demonstrators, several major payment systems shut down access for supremacist organizations that used the systems to process donations. But now a social network devoted to activist causes says PayPal Holdings Inc. is still processing …

In response to Canada’s moves to introduce further regulation of its payments industry, the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Transactions Association said this week it is “expanding” its advocacy effort into that country. So far, the ETA’s effort includes hiring a lobbyist to represent the interests of Canadian payments companies and U.S. …