Merchant

Banks are still holding on to scores of delinquent mortgages that date to the real estate crash, but a surge in home values across the country is motivating them to move the most troublesome loans off their books more quickly.

A group of defendants have settled FTC charges that they provided scammers with hundreds of thousands of consumers’ sensitive personal information – including Social Security and bank account numbers.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been pushing ahead with EMV card adoption and the Merchant Customer Exchange mobile wallet, but gave little to no attention to them during its Feb. 18 conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings.

Only 37% of U.S. merchant locations are fully equipped for EMV card acceptance, narrowly missing a projected 40% rate of deployment predicted by management consulting firm Strawhecker Group, according to research it published Wednesday.

The FTC sent a summary of its 2015 work on debt collection practices to the CFPB to include in the CFPB’s annual report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The FTC and the CFPB share enforcement responsibilities under the FDCPA.

FCRA and TCPA cases were much higher in January compared with January 2015 (+31.4% and +39.8% respectively) but that follows a multi-year trend for the two statutes that doesn’t seem to be easing, according to data collected from U.S. district courts.

Matt Taylor, formerly the CEO of Mercury and now group president of integrated payments and emerging channels at Vantiv, shared insights into how his company made the right decisions at the right time.

M-commerce and payments are a tsunami that no retailer can ignore, but engaging consumers on mobile, and more importantly, converting consumers, remains a challenge for retailers of all sizes.

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday named Thomas Donilon, the former national security adviser, to chair a special commission to develop a long-term cybersecurity strategy.

About 10% of midsize businesses say they want to develop a relationship with nonbank providers, such as marketplace lenders or business development companies, and even more are said to be considering switching banks.