Compliance

Mastercard has increased the contactless payment limit to CA$250 across Canada to provide consumers with a safer way to pay during the coronavirus pandemic.

Interchange fees are a major part of the costs merchants pay to accept payment cards. While merchants seek relief from fees during a time in which their businesses face serious damage from stay-at-home edicts because of coronavirus, the credit card companies and banks quickly began to dig in their heels.

Payments gateway and financial crime compliance technology provider Pelican is partnering with Banking Labs to serve banks and corporations in Canada.

While much of the world is sheltering at home to deter the spread of coronavirus, there's still a need for essential workers to travel — and an opportunity for the development of in-car payments technology, which could allow consumers to pay for gas or food without handling cash or other potentially infected surfaces.

With coronavirus driving more merchants to promote electronic payments over cash — and contactless payments over cards — many are still asking their customers to share a potentially virus-laden pen to sign a receipt or screen at the point of sale.

Hacker emails disguised as pleas for aid have surged in the past month, and they're targeting bank employees and the many others working from home.

The regulator formally announced the 60-day delay on Monday after tweeting about it over the weekend.

With coronavirus presenting significant challenges for retailers and the technical challenges of imposing interchange fee changes in the networks, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover are holding off on the updates.

The credit union regulator will hold off in-person examinations until at least May and has already pushed back at least one comment deadline as the pandemic worsens.

Card fraud risks — already soaring prior to the coronavirus outbreak — are changing rapidly as the pandemic deepens, forcing issuers and merchants to rethink protective measures.