Compliance

More small merchants are starting to comply with the Payment Card Industry security standards, which describe how to protect card data, but many merchants still do not have an incident response plan in case of a data breach.

Merchants and payment vendors who never change the default password in sensitive systems are getting fresh attention from the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

Mobile wallets, often funded by linked bank accounts, are sometimes described as decoupled debit accounts in disguise — and may suffer from the same challenges decoupled debit faced.

Bank of America Corp. is negotiating with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to settle allegations it deceived customers in the sales of credit-card add-on products, according to two people briefed on the talks.

Software-as-a-service provider BillingTree has developed an educational compliance tool to help companies follow payments regulations.

More independent sales organizations are using fees to force merchants to take Payment Card Industry security standard compliance seriously.

With a population of 1.35 billion people, more than half of whom already use mobile services, the People's Republic of China represents the largest and perhaps the most attractive, if somewhat challenging, market for mobile commerce on Earth.

ACI Worldwide completed its $109 million acquisition of electronic billing technology developer Official Payments Holdings.

Verizon Communication Inc. will operate as an approved Qualified Security Assessor for certifying client's payment networks for the Payment Card Industry data security standards.

ATLANTA—The Affordable Care Act has sent a number of small credit unions scrambling to find affordable employee healthcare coverage.

WASHINGTON—While industry observers brace to see whether the cost of international wire transfers will skyrocket after the new Consumer Financial Protection rule went in effect on Oct. 28, early indications from credit unions are that prices will rise and some may exit the market entirely because of the increased compliance burden.

Western Union Co., the world's biggest money-transfer business, tumbled as much as 13 percent after reporting a drop in third-quarter profit and plans to increase expenses tied to regulatory compliance.

PayPal, having long ago charted the state-by-state regulatory waters for U.S. payments companies, is urging a reform to the rules in an effort that could ultimately help other players in its market.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—A year after the wind-down of U.S. Central FCU-the industry's ultimate source of liquidity-the NCUA Board voted Thursday to require all credit unions over $250 million to contract for a federally backed source of emergency liquidity, either the Central Liquidity Facility or the Federal Reserve's Discount Window.

Optimal Payments Plc, which is based in Isle of Man, has registered with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement to provide services to Internet gambling businesses licensed by New Jersey.

TAS Group has upgraded its card management software to allow banks to quickly design new EMV chip-based payment products and develop related programs.

Issuers of store-branded credit cards are facing new regulatory scrutiny over big retroactive interest charges that can hit borrowers at the end of a promotional period.

Financial institutions rely on debit cards to create consumer loyalty and engagement, and the product's business case hasn't been diminished by rising costs and regulatory uncertainty.

Diebold Inc., a maker of ATMs and bank security systems, agreed to pay more than $48 million to settle allegations by the U.S. that it bribed officials in Russia, China and Indonesia.

The migration to EMV cards in the United States remains complicated by the unresolved legal issues surrounding the Durbin Amendment's implementation.