Data security

SourceMedia's PayThink conference is an annual gathering of key decision-makers in the financial services and payments industries. This year's event, which took place in Phoenix this September, brought several key ideas to light.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council meets Friday to discuss removing the label from the now shrunken insurer; Senate Banking Committee to hear Richard Smith on October 4.

Summit Credit Union in Madison, Wis., has filed what's believed to be the first lawsuit by a financial institution in connection with the massive data breach.

The hearings before the Senate Banking Committee have high stakes for both companies, as lawmakers are expected to ask the CEOs whether they should be fired.

Data breaches and payment hacks require not only tech measures, but crisis management. Had Equifax gotten out in front of the story, particularly during the slow news period of August, it would have earned kudos and perhaps mitigated some of the public scrutiny.

Did hackers access the credit bureau's computers two months earlier than the company first thought?; the Fed's decision to start unwinding its balance sheet should raise rates and boost bank profits.

Historically, the industry has placed much greater emphasis on preventing fraud at the point of transaction without doing enough to stop fraudulent account openings, writes Melissa Townsley, co-founder and CEO of GIACT systems.

Consumers and merchants in a digital ecosystem are changing the way people interact with each other and machines, changing payments and requiring an updated approach to security, according to Mastercard.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Wells Fargo’s treatment of customers was “egregious and unacceptable," hinting that more regulatory action was likely.

Equifax's data breach may be the most serious, given that it covered 143 million consumers and involved reams of confidential information, but it wasn't the largest. Following are the biggest to date.