Regulation

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced this week that his office has reached a consent judgment with Elite Financial Services Inc., a debt settlement company that allegedly misrepresented its services.



U.S. Sen Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Dec. 22 sent a letter to Elizabeth Warren, special advisor to the secretary of the treasurer and the person responsible for establishing the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, seeking her help to protect consumers from attempts to circumvent new payment card regulations “by pushing consumers to less-regulated products such as prepaid cards.”

The Fed’s proposed new interchange rules may bring a quick end to free checking, two analysts say.

Merchant acquirers might be breathing a sigh of relief following the Federal Reserve Board’s proposal to cap debit card interchange rates at 12 cents per transaction (see story). But though the proposed rules would not directly affect them, issuer reaction might, observers say.

With so-called debit card fees poised to take a severe hit, some payments analysts say a similar attack on credit card interchange rates is inevitable.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a final rule Dec. 21 to move to electronic payments instead of checks for federal benefits and nontax payments.

In the latest congressional assault on card fees, a group of Senate Democrats introduced legislation Friday that would limit the types of fees that could be charged on prepaid cards.

WASHINGTON — If you want to know why the American Bankers Association blames the Independent Community Bankers of America for undercutting the industry's lobbying on regulatory reform legislation, you have to start in Nebraska.

Contrary to expectations, the Federal Reserve Board’s draft report on debit interchange did not resolve the debate on the cost of fraud in card payments.

For Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and competing payments networks, a more critical provision than interchange pricing remains unresolved in the Federal Reserve’s proposed debit rules.