Regulation

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is soliciting public comment on guidelines it has drafted for mobile-payment systems, an official from the bank tells PaymentsSource.The bank’s director of payments and settlements is accepting comments through Oct. 18, according to the official. “Our aim is to ensure safety and effectiveness of mobile-payment schemes,” he says. Under the draft guidelines, the central bank will allow mobile payments in Sri Lanka only through licensed banks, registered finance companies and custodian account-based systems operated by nonbank service providers. Banks and financial institutions would be allowed to offer mobile-payments services to their accountholders, which would allow customers to operate their accounts via their mobile phone. Under the custodian account-based system, mobile operators may open e-money accounts for customers and issue e-money in exchange for actual money from customers, according to the guidelines.The central bank would allow mobile-payment services to be conducted only in Sri Lanka rupees and only for domestic transactions, and providers must route all foreign inward remittances to mobile accounts through the custodian banks and credit them in rupees. The draft rules also would require mobile-payments providers to report any suspicious transactions based on the guidelines of the central bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit. The draft also requires providers to use security measures to prevent criminal activity while using Near Field Communication-based mobile-payment systems.

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.