Merchant

Credit unions and banks are once again struggling to plug a data breach that is siphoning tens of thousands of dollars from debit cards through purchases at local retailers.

A single lawsuit filed by a one attorney helped create a spike in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) lawsuits filed in the May 16-31 reporting period, according to WebRecon LLC, a Grand Rapids, Mich.- based firm that tracks the data from U.S. District Courts.

When Congress threatened to cap the interchange fees that banks collect on debit card transactions, the industry argued that such a move would force it to kill off its own debit rewards programs. As it turns out, the demise of those programs might inconvenience consumers but it is unlikely to deal banks much of a financial blow.

Starbucks Corp. finally has an official mobile payment offering for Android smartphones.

U.S. Senators. Charles Schumer , D-N.Y., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., are urging the U.S. Department of Justice Department to shut down an underground online drug-trade site called Silk Road, but in a June 6 open letter to the department the senators barely touched on the digital currency–Bitcoins–that fuels the site’s commerce.

Verizon Wireless has brick-and-mortar mobile payments covered thanks to its participation in the Isis joint venture. But the company soon will give its wireless customers the option to charge online purchases directly to their mobile-phone bill.

The plethora of new mobile payment initiatives – the most recent being the mobile wallet project announced by Google, Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint – can be confusing for banks. What mobile payment technologies make the most sense for a financial institution to offer? In a recent interview with Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, he handicapped the three versions of near-field communication mobile payment technology that standards bodies have approved. [Near-field communication is a short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables short-range communication between electronic devices, and it’s the mechanism most companies are choosing to pursue mobile payments.] The differences between the three versions hinge on who controls the security of the mobile payments by controlling the “secure element” that stores cardholder credentials and account data and communicates with the apps.

Effective July 1, retailers in the United Arab Emirates no longer may assess surcharges to customers who pay by credit card under a ruling last week from the country’s Supreme Committee for Consumer Protection.

Bluebird Soft Inc. this week plans to unveil a portable point-of-sale terminal at the Retail Asia Expo in Hong Kong, the mobile computing manufacturer announced June 14.

Speedy communication to breach victims is vital in preventing fraud, according to lawmakers and regulators who are pushing for faster consumer notifications after last week's disclosure of an incident at Citigroup Inc.