Two independent sales organization executives who ran afoul of government regulators cautioned their industry colleagues Thursday on how to stay out of trouble. The warnings came during a session at the MidWest Acquirers Association (MWAA) annual conference in Chicago titled “You, Me and the FTC: Personal Stories From Being in …

The federal government now expects processors to be payments cops, says Andy Phillips, chief executive of an ISO that found out the hard way. Following the networks’ rules is no guarantee the government will think you’ve done enough. In the new world of payment processing, I’m now a cop. I …

Already found liable for its role in a telemarketing scheme that defrauded consumers, Universal Processing Services of Wisconsin LLC, doing business as Newtek Merchant Solutions, now will have to pay its share of a $1.7 million fine, a U.S. District Court judge ruled last week. The Federal Trade Commission in …

By Jim Daly Processors accused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last month of aiding allegedly fraudulent debt collectors by providing them with payments services are beginning to file their answers to the federal charges. At least one of them is accusing the CFPB of “regulatory overreach” in the style …

Big Data is all very well, but when it comes to automated underwriting for merchant funding, the key is to know which data streams to include and which to ignore, says David Rubin. We believe that not every Internet itch that a merchant scratches is germane to the ability or …

The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this spring climbed on a regulatory bandwagon that has federal agencies attacking disfavored industries by going after the payment processors that serve those industries. The CFPB named four merchant-acquiring companies as defendants in a lawsuit against six people and their associated debt-collection companies. The …

The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau named four merchant-acquiring companies as defendants in a lawsuit against six people and their associated debt-collection companies that allegedly attempted to collect millions of dollars in so-called “phantom debts” from consumers that the consumers either did not owe or were not owed to the debt …

The accelerating pace of change in payments, combined with a whole new level of complexity, is creating a huge need for this new breed of merchant-services partner, says Bill Clark. A new breed of super partner is being called upon that can deliver the knowledge, resources, teams, and technologies to …

By Jim Daly A California independent sales organization called CardFlex Inc. and its two principals have settled federal charges that they allegedly processed more than $26 million in unauthorized charges for a company known as I Works. CardFlex strongly denied the FTC's charges and said it settled in order to …

From search engines to social media, online competition has heated up for ISOs and acquirers. What does it take to stay ahead of the pack? If acronyms and terms like SEO, PPC, unique clicks, likes, and tweets sound unfamiliar, the latest digital-marketing efforts used by independent sales organizations and acquirers …