PayThink

It’s clear that merchant acquirers and processors need to find a way to provide a fast, scalable and merchant-friendly certification path to EMV.

The repeal of the swaps push-out provision will reduce banks' operational costs, but it makes little difference in terms of increasing the size of the government safety net. The reason: with or without the rule, the government protects the swaps contracts of the largest institutions.

Big banks have successfully reversed a Dodd-Frank provision that would have required them to move swaps from their FDIC-insured depository institutions into uninsured subsidiaries. But in so doing, they have inadvertently thrust the issue of implicit subsidies back into the spotlight.

State money transmitter licensing laws are among the most important rules that address the dangers posed by payments, especially in the non-bank payments area.

Rigid state licensing laws have compelled some payments startups to partner with licensed money transmitters in order to get their programs off the ground. That's a good thing.

The government conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was never meant to authorize lasting control over the housing sector, according to one of the people who advised Congress on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act.

The world of commerce and payments saw a lot of movement in 2014 and we expect even further change in the coming year, as mobile technology matures and the use of social media as a transaction venue increases.

Size-based regulation is designed to curb banks' appetite for growth. This will affect every operational and strategic decision that banks make going forward.

The latest series of bank settlements over alleged attempts to manipulate the foreign exchange market suggests that lenders need to set about pruning the ranks of problem employees and retraining those who remain.

If you have been in the payments business long enough, you have seen trends come and go.