Analytics

The Online Lenders Alliance wants Nacha, the group that manages a U.S. payment system, to clarify warnings on illegal use of the network by payday-loan firms, saying the message is posing a threat to legitimate business.

Recognition by a market-based standards organization such as ISO, in the form of a three-letter code, would set the stage for increasing market depth and liquidity of bitcoin trading — in turn facilitating overall consumer and merchant adoption.

Payments processor Total System Services, or TSYS, has added a fraud mitigation program from Fair Isaac Corp., a data analysis and credit risk company commonly known as FICO.

Bitcoin users who help maintain the digital ecosystem's official record of transactions may soon find themselves required to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as administrators of the alternative currency.

Microsoft Corp. is joining Eurosmart, a Brussels, Belgium-based association that develops security standards for smart cards, terminals and other electronic applications.

With its latest proposal, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council aims to make card data security more straightforward for merchants and organizations accepting payments.

The Federal Trade Commission has proposed additions to the Telemarketing Sales Rule to eliminate remotely-created payment orders and checks, bar the use of reload PINs for bill payments and prohibit cash-to-cash money transfers.

As many as 30% of merchants bailed out on their Payment Card Industry data security test because they didn't have time or didn't understand it, ControlScan says. The vendor aims to improve the process by suppressing irrelevant questions and putting the easiest questions first.

Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, appeared Aug. 12 in federal court in Newark, N.J., where prosecutors said July 26 he was indicted with three other Russians and a Ukrainian. They are accused of hacking 17 retailers, financial institutions and payment processors, including 7-Eleven Inc., Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., Carrefour SA and J.C. Penney Co., to steal more than 160 million credit- and debit-card numbers.

In the race to provide consumers with identity verification tools that are simple and easy to use, it's in everyone's best interest to ensure that businesses are not sacrificing data security in the process.

Business for debt collectors in Spain, where the industry is barely regulated and uses methods mostly illegal in the U.S., has risen by an estimated 40% in the past five years.

ID Analytics Inc. wants to make sure banks know when a fraudster has taken over an account and is trying to go wild with card payments or money transfers.

Consumer confidence rose last week to the highest mark in more than five years as Americans' views on personal finances, spending and the economy improved.

Migrating to EMV does not mean card issuers have to do away with their instant-issuance systems.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is making its security standards available on a Russian-language microsite as part of a move to promote data security in Russia.

Bill.com is using its business payment technology to help users determine when and where to ask for additional security information, a move designed to spot vulnerabilities that require extra protection.

U.S. consumer spending totaled $89 per day in July, unchanged from the $90 in June and May, according to Gallup Daily tracking interviews of more than 14,000 Americans.

Wells Fargo & Co. will tie up with American Express Co., the world’s biggest credit card issuer by purchases, to offer cards accepted on American Express’s network of merchants.

The Lamassu machine, a so-called Bitcoin ATM, is a rare device that makes it possible for the unbanked to obtain digital currency. It was invented by a pair of guitar-store proprietors who wanted to break into the payments industry — and are prepared to face the music when regulators take notice.

Ethics concerns raised by House lawmakers about Raj Date, the former No. 2 at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who left to form his own firm, appear overblown, according to ethics experts and even some of his accusers.