Law and Regulation

More than a year after the Trump Administration took power, payments industry executives looking for a friendlier tone from Washington, D.C., are getting it, but it’s questionable just how much tangible benefit this will yield, two expert Washington observers said Tuesday. Meanwhile, the picture could darken this fall if, as …

President Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on about 1,300 Chinese products worth $50 billion have the merchant-acquiring industry worried. The Electronic Transactions Association, a national payments-industry trade group, joined more than 100 other organizations in signing a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee leadership expressing their “deep concern” …

Mobile-payment and -loyalty provider LevelUp announced an integration with Gusto Point of Sale, a vendor of Web, kiosk, and mobile technology for restaurants. Under a settlement between the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and The Bancorp Bank, the prepaid card issuer is to pay a $2 million fine and nearly $1.3 …

Liberal members of the U.S. Supreme Court sharply questioned American Express Co.’s lawyer during oral arguments Monday for a major case involving a challenge to AmEx’s anti-steering rules for its merchants, Reuters reported. A group of 11 states led by Ohio alleges the rules violate antitrust laws and is challenging …

Some 124 new data breaches have become known this year as of Feb. 16, the Identity Theft Resource Center reports. And the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors issued a study last week pegging the cost of malicious cyber activity to the economy in 2016 at $57 billion on the …

The efforts of 18 U.S. senators to persuade the Senate Appropriations Committee to honor state laws for legal cannabis are not expected to sway Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to drop their prohibitions on marijuana-related purchases over their networks. Earlier this week, a group spearheaded by Sens. Michael Bennett (D) …

Federal regulatory initiatives targeting the payments industry may have abated, but a variety of others at the state level and in the court system could require reactions from payments providers. That’s the word from Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs, who spoke Wednesday at the annual Northeast Acquirers …

Mastercard Inc. took an $873 million, one-time charge in 2017’s fourth quarter related to the new federal tax law, and the company reported Thursday that the cobranded Cabela’s Visa card will switch to the Mastercard brand. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that President Donald Trump signed into law in …

UATP, which is owned by and provides payment processing for many of the world’s airlines, said it is now accepted for U.S. ticket purchases on Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. General Catalyst announced that soon-to-retire American Express Co. chief executive Ken Chenault has joined the venture-capital firm as chairman and a …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced changes to its controversial prepaid accounts rule and extended its effective date by one year, to April 2019. The changes will adjust error-resolution requirements for prepaid card providers and will make it easier for consumers to link credit card accounts to digital wallets, some …