Policy & Regulation

The State Bank of Vietnam reportedly has again denied a request by banks in that country to allow them to charge their own customers fees when using their ATMs to withdraw cash. They also failed to receive permission to increase the ATM surcharge fees they charge noncustomers.

More than three-fourths of bank customers did not pay any debit card overdraft fees over a recent 12-month period, suggest survey data the American Bankers Association released Sept. 15.

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem is warning residents to watch for people posing as collectors of payday loan debts. The scammers call individuals and threaten legal action unless payment is authorized from a bank account.

A claims administrator for the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday began mailing more than 22,000 checks to consumers who were victims of a deceptive telemarketing operation called Remote Response.

Some credit card issuers are using a “dirty trick” to get around the new Credit CARD Act by marketing small-business cards to consumers, according to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

In a sign the federal government is continuing to recognize the value of prepaid debit cards, the U.S. Department of the Treasury in January plans to launch a pilot to test the delivery of tax refunds to card accounts held by financially underserved consumers.

Andrew Kahr, a preternaturally intelligent and occasionally controversial architect of the credit card industry, has spent his career solving intricate problems for financial companies, often by finding loopholes in regulation.

The pending overhaul of debit interchange regulations is widely expected to lead to cuts in banks' rewards programs, but it remains unclear how this could affect decoupled debit cards that have long promoted their lucrative rewards offers.

After a brutal 21-hour legislative session ending in the early morning hours of June 25, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd thought regulatory reform was finally finished.

Worldwide Asset Management, a debt-buying unit of West Asset Management, agreed to pay an $85,000 penalty and change its business practices as part of a settlement with Maryland regulators, the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said Thursday.