Critics say state-by-state money-transfer licenses deter payments startups and entrench incumbents. Defenders say they protect the public. What’s really going on? By Jim Daly Christopher Ferro, who heads up legal and compliance operations at digital wire-transfer company Xoom Corp., was pleased. It was Sept. 5, and he had just opened …
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Trends & Tactics
NFC Stalwart Isis Preps for a Rollout Isis, the smart-phone-based payments machine owned by three big mobile-telecommunications carriers, has stuck with near-field communication (NFC) through thick and thin while other mobile-payments providers have either avoided the high-powered but demanding technology altogether—think PayPal—or scaled back their commitment to it—think Google Inc. …
Read More »Acquiring: ISOs Enter the Age of Regulation
Linda Punch Time was, regulators largely left independent sales organizations and other acquirers alone. Now, with a trio of major enforcement actions, the Federal Trade Commission is showing how those days are over. For entities that play such a key role in the acquiring industry, independent sales organizations have led …
Read More »Cover Story: Wall Street Pulls the Strings
Banks remain key clients, but ultimately Visa and MasterCard must serve the interests of major investors. Can they pull that off while warring with merchants over fees?By Peter Lucas Former Visa Inc. chairman and chief executive Joe Saunders couldn’t have been happier on March 19, 2008, when the day’s trading …
Read More »Networks: Once Again, with Feeling
By Jim Daly and John Stewart A judge says the Federal Reserve Board failed to carry out Congress’s will for debit cards when it wrote its rules implementing the Durbin Amendment. Now what? Most businesses dislike government regulations. But they really hate situations where a regulation gets upended, the result …
Read More »Court’s Overturning of the Fed’s Durbin Rule Resurrects ‘Alternative B’ for Routing
By Jim Daly B is back. That is, what the Federal Reserve Board back in 2011 dubbed “Alternative B” for implementing the transaction-routing requirements in the Dodd-Frank Act’s Durbin Amendment. Alternative B would have required each debit card to provide the merchant access to at least two signature and two …
Read More »Continuing Its Payments Crackdown, the FTC Charges an ISO With Deceptive Marketing
By Linda Punch If independent sales organizations needed more evidence that the Federal Trade Commission is monitoring their activities more closely, it came last week with the filing of yet another complaint against an ISO. Within weeks of charging two ISOs with violations of the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, the …
Read More »Security Notes: The Age of Bit Money Is Here
Gideon Samid • Gideon@bitmint.com The specter of consumers pushing electronic money bits to merchants is a cause for concern in the payment empires of today: the networks. Concern, not alarm, because consumers will continue to have eyes bigger than their pockets, and will be eager for credit. What will the …
Read More »Acquiring: A Rough First Mile
Elizabeth Whalen So far, usage of so-called open-fare payment systems is low, and now transit agencies will confront new problems implementing them. As the hardware for accepting payments on public-transportation systems in many cities nears obsolescence, transit authorities are planning upgrades that allow riders to pay fares with something they …
Read More »Cover Story: Faster Payments
There’s clearly consumer demand to speed up settlement, and it’s been done overseas. The challenges here, though, are formidable, starting with defining just what ‘real time’ is. By Jim Daly Doctors often tell their harried patients to slow down, but in payments it’s just the opposite. In an effort to …
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