Payments News Update – August 9, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: 6 Swipe Fee Plaintiffs 'Arbitrarily' Picked for 2025 Trial Law360 – August 7, 2024 (subscription required) Six retailers including department store giant Target will go to trial in 2025 on claims that Visa and Mastercard overcharged them, a Manhattan federal judge said Wednesday, explaining that he arbitrarily chose from among 60 plaintiffs in a long-running, multibillion-dollar antitrust battle. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, having...

Payments News Update – May 31, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: The MPC Fires Back at Claims Merchants Won’t Pass Along CCCA Savings to Consumers Digital Transactions News – May 24, 2024 Claims by banks that merchants won’t pass along savings from the Credit Card Competition Act to consumers are grossly misleading and do not reflect the economic realities merchants face, argues the Merchants Payments Coalition, a lobbying group representing sellers on payments-acceptance matters. Passing along...

Payments News Update – May 24, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Britain Seeks to Rein in Mastercard and Visa Fees on Retailers Reuters – May 21, 2024 There is little evidence that big fee hikes imposed by U.S. duo Visa and Mastercard on retailers have led to a major improvement in service, Britain's Payment Systems Regulator said on Tuesday, flagging concerns competition was not working. Visa and Mastercard have long dominated the market for payment cards,...

Payments News Update – May 10, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Senate Leaders Committed to CCCA Vote, Marshall Says Punchbowl News – May 3, 2024 Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told reporters he’d received a commitment from Senate leadership to hold a vote on the Credit Card Competition Act before the end of the 118th Congress, the senator’s latest move to up pressure on the chamber’s leadership. Marshall spoke to reporters Thursday night about his push for...

Payments News Update – December 1, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: UK Payment Sector Urged to Develop System to Bypass Dominant Card Networks Financial Times – November 22, 2023 (subscription required) The UK should develop ways to challenge the dominance of the big card networks and is “at risk of falling behind” other countries unless it builds an alternative to its “clunky” Faster Payment Service, according to a government-commissioned review into the competitiveness of the sector. The...

Payments News Update – September 22, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: California Legislature Passes Plastic Gift Card Ban Payments Dive – September 21, 2023 California’s legislature has passed a bill that would outlaw plastic gift cards, with legislators in the Senate and Assembly overcoming some opposition this month in votes approving the legislation, according to the state’s legislative website. About 70% of retail gift cards in California are made from PVC plastic and would be affected...

August 8, 2023

BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Wells Fargo, and Bank of Montreal have been ordered to pay a combined $260 million for violating CFTC rules around recordkeeping and supervision.  Separately, two of those institutions, BNP Paribas and Wells Fargo, along with BMO Capital Markets Corp., Houlihan Lokey Capital, Inc., Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Moelis & Company LLC, SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., and Wedbush Securities Inc., have agreed to pay a combined...

May 30, 2023

The former head of Wells Fargo’s Community Bank, Carrie Tolstedt, has agreed to pay a $3 million penalty to settle charges of misleading investors about its financial success.  Over a two-year period, Tolstedt publicly and repeatedly touted a metric used by Wells Fargo to measure financial success, even though she knew it did not accurately track accounts or products used or needed by customers.  In addition to the penalty, Tolstedt...

Payments News Update - March 10, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: The Credit Card Competition Act: What Is It, and Why You Should Care PaymentsJournal – March 7, 2023 The Credit Card Competition Act—introduced last year by a bipartisan group of senators—may be under consideration during this session of Congress, and industry groups are lining up for and against. If implemented, cards from the nation’s largest banks would be required to be routed over at least one competing network in addition...

Top Ten Federal Financial Fraud Recoveries of 2022

Federal enforcement of financial fraud takes many forms.  This year, thanks to positive developments in the world of money-laundering enforcement, we have expanded our Top Ten Lists related to federal financial fraud. In addition to documenting SEC and CFTC enforcement actions, FCPA enforcement, and money-laundering enforcement, the following list focuses on financial fraud in other realms. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) had an active enforcement year. Several of the...