C|C Payments Blog

Payments News Update -- August 7, 2019

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: It’s Official: The Fed Is Jumping Into Real-Time Payments With FedNow Digital Transactions News – August 5, 2019 Ending months of speculation, the Federal Reserve confirmed Monday it will launch a real-time payments service by 2023 or 2024. The banking regulator, which also published Monday a notice in the Federal Register outlining its plan and requesting...

Payments News Update -- July 31, 2019

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Visa and Kroger Settle Debit-Routing Lawsuit, but Partial Credit Card Boycott Continues Digital Transactions News – July 31, 2019 The Kroger Co. and Visa Inc. have settled a 2016 federal lawsuit in which Kroger alleged Visa interfered with its transaction-routing plans for EMV debit cards, Digital Transactions News has learned. In a separate dispute, however, the...

Payments News Update -- July 24, 2019

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: US Reps, Senators Present Faster Payments Legislation PYMNTS – July 24, 2019 To reinforce the Federal Reserve’s authority to create a real-time payments system and mandate that the Fed brings about its own process, two U.S. representatives and two U.S. senators have introduced the Payment Modernization Act of 2019. The legislation was brought forward...

Payments News Update -- July 17, 2019

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: How Digital Banks Are Breaking up Latin America's Finance Monopolies OZY – July 11, 2019 Gabriela Franco clutches her phone, frustrated. Her bank in São Paulo is on the other end. She needs to wire money right away to a separate account at her bank. But the representative is telling her she has “to be there — like, physically — at the bank in São Paulo to...

Payments News Update -- July 3, 2019

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Antitrust Chronicle – Ohio v. American Express: A Year Later… Competition Policy International – June 25, 2019 (click here for the full report) On June 25, 2018, the Supreme Court sided in a 5-4 decision with American Express in a lawsuit over rules it imposes on merchants who accept its cards. The Supreme Court’s decision in Ohio v. American Express...

Payments News Update -- June 26, 2019

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Tariff Pressure Takes Aim at Payment Equipment Once Again  Digital Transactions News – June 20, 2019 While legislators and regulators focused much of their attention on the Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency this week, tariffs on Chinese-made goods re-emerged in Washington as a threat that could raise prices for merchants and merchant acquirers. The...

Payments News Update -- June 19, 2019

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: A Court Ruling May Affect Acquirers’ Ability to Pass Along Data-Breach Fines to Merchants Digital Transactions News – June 12, 2019 A common assumption among merchant acquirers and retailers is that merchants are the ones who ultimately are liable for network fines after a merchant’s data breach. But a recent decision by a federal appellate court that ruled...

Payments News Update -- June 12, 2019

Legal and Regulatory Developments Banks Warn EU Rules Will Scupper a Quarter of Online Payments Financial Times – June 12, 2019 Europe’s big banks have warned that more than a quarter of online payments will be impossible to complete from September because of a lack of preparedness for new EU anti-fraud rules and have “urgently” requested more time to adapt. In a letter seen by the Financial Times,...

Payments News Update -- June 5, 2019

Industry Developments SPOTLIGHT: Is It Enough? Digital Transactions Magazine – June 1, 2019 For Mastercard and Visa chargeback process changes to make the most impact on friendly fraud, merchants will have to take matters into their own hands. About a year ago, Visa Inc. rolled out a new initiative to update, modernize, and streamline chargeback procedures and the dispute-management process. Later in the...

The First Blockchain Antitrust Case. Or Is It?

Legal professionals paying close attention to the still nascent world of blockchains and cyptocurrencies are following what is considered to be the first antitrust case involving cryptocurrencies. For enthusiasts, United American Corp. v. Bitmain, Inc. involves the self-described inventor of bitcoin on one side, the operator of bitcoin.com on the other side, the world’s largest mining pools, and the Bitcoin Cash...