In 2015, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) expanded its involvement with financial-services innovation, making innovation a key area of focus. In a recent interview, Beth Knickerbocker, the OCC’s inaugural chief innovation officer, said, “The OCC is saying that it’s okay to innovate responsibly.” And although she …

In late July, the currency known as Bitcoin split into two competing, incompatible currencies. The rebels who initiated the so-called fork may or may not survive the onslaught of shocked traders, many of whom rely on this currency for ransomware and other illicit payments. Still, even if Bitcoin-2 proves to …

Debit card fraud rates fell last year, according to a widely watched annual study of the U.S. debit market. The study also provides new insights about debit cards and mobile wallets, and debit’s increasing popularity for small purchases. The fraud-loss rate for non-PIN (mostly signature-debit) transactions fell 30% from 2.6 …

Payments provider NXT-ID Inc. announced its FitPay Inc. subsidiary is providing the payments technology for the vivoactive 3, a new smart watch from Garmin International Inc. Dubbed Garmin Pay, the service supports contactless payments made with Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. credit and debit cards from major issuing banks. Earlier this week, Fitbit Inc. introduced Fitbit Pay. In …

Digiliti Money Group Inc., a provider of mobile remote deposit capture services for banks, has rejected Urban FT Inc.’s offer to save the company from potential bankruptcy, Urban FT announced Tuesday. Earlier in August, Digiliti said was considering “strategic options” that included a sale of the company or a Chapter …

Consumers have a new option when choosing a fitness device that’s capable of making a contactless payment. Fitbit Inc., a San Francisco-based maker of fitness trackers, announced its Ionic smart watch Monday that includes Fitbit Pay, the company’s first foray into contactless payments. Fitbit Pay, which will be available when …

So far, most observers would agree same-day ACH credit processing, introduced nearly a year ago on the nation’s automated clearing house network, has been a success. Users appear to be satisfied with the service, and risk appears to be under control, observers say, despite the shorter windows for fraud detection. …

Now that financial institutions have launched a digital peer-to-peer payment service called Zelle to battle popular nonbank services like Venmo, the rival platforms are likely to divide up a rapidly growing market but will also face pressure to find ways to charge for the service. While overall U.S. P2P dollar …

American Express Co. says it disagrees with an opinion from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that differences in card products it offered in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Territories from cards it offered in the United States amounted to discrimination. AmEx says it resolved the differences in 2013 after …

Can the new version of 3D Secure fix the faults of the old one and stem the steady rise of e-commerce fraud? The answer is a big maybe—and here’s why. It has been nearly two decades since the card-network brands introduced 3-Domain Secure 1.0 in an attempt to offer a …