Merchant

A federal court has granted a request by the Federal Trade Commission to shut down a tech support scam that allegedly bilked consumers out of more than $17 million by pretending to represent Microsoft, Apple and other major tech companies.

Consumer credit markets continued their strong performance in Q3 with mortgage delinquency rates holding a trend of double-digit annual declines and auto loans and credit cards showing signs of strength through stable defaults and balance growth.

The October 2015 “liability shift” date has come and gone. For years leading up to it finance and payments pundits (and eventually the general population) discussed the impact of this date to force merchants to migrate to EMV-enabled credit cards, from the decades old magnetic stripe standard.

Within less than 12 hours, LoanDepot Inc., a fast-growing mortgage lender, aborted its plan to go public and Fitbit Inc., the maker of wearable devices, priced a secondary offering below the previous day’s close.

A class-action settlement filed late Thursday awarded $59 million to tens of thousands of New Yorkers who had their bank accounts frozen and wages garnished in an illegal collection scheme.

Gas stations have until 2017 to upgrade pumps for EMV chip-card acceptance, but first things first — the indoor point of sale at convenience stores at those stations were included in the October 2015 liability shift for merchants.

Around the world consumer adoption for electronic wallets has risen steadily. And mobile wallets such as Apple Pay are finding their ways onto mobile devices around the world.

Apple is reportedly adding person-to-person payments to Apple Pay, based on technology from the bank-run clearXchange network. If this feature comes to market, it will face many competing systems that run on Apple's own handsets.

The top Democrat on the House Small Business Committee is looking into what regulators are doing to protect small-business borrowers who use online lenders.

New York City landlords would be banned from checking credit scores to decide whether to rent to would-be tenants under a bill introduced in the City Council.