Law and regulation

A collection agency is being sued for threatening to garnish a Texas woman's wages to collect on a delinquent account.

A U.S. appellate court has approved Minnesota’s TCF Bank’s request for an expedited appeal of a lower court ruling denying a bid to block the Federal Reserve’s final rule on interchange charges, setting up a three-way race between the courts, the Fed and Congress on the controversial effort to limit the lucrative fees.

The Obama administration announced Friday the release of a strategy to protect consumer and business identities in cyberspace.

Visa Europe is expressing dissatisfaction with last week’s General Court of the European Union’s decision to uphold the 10.2 million euro (US14.7 million or £8.7 million) fine imposed on the company for refusing to do business with a U.S. bank, saying it had already settled the dispute in 2006.

The Reserve Bank of India is asking the nation’s credit card issuers not to authorize payments to companies offering online foreign-exchange trading to the country’s citizens.

When calculating the biggest losers of the Durbin amendment’s cap on debit fee count among them Navy FCU, the nation’s largest credit union and seventh-largest issuer of Visa debit cards.

Minnesota’s TCF Bank filed a an expedited appeal request April 14 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit asking the court to overturn a lower court’s ruling and to block the Federal Reserve’s pending implementation of the Durbin amendment’s debit fee caps.

WASHINGTON – A major technology group comprised of some of the biggest corporations shifted its position on the proposed delay in debit rules a week after expressing support for the delay.

The fight over the interchange amendment heated up on Wednesday when Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon an open letter defending the provision.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jon Tester opened debate on delaying the controversial interchange rule this morning insisting the proposed cuts in debit fees will cause unintended harm to rural banks and credit unions, even as the Senator and his allies desperately search for a bill to attach their delay measure to.

The Reserve Bank of India is clamping down on foreign airlines operating in India by mandating they stop using overseas banks to settle card transactions used to buy airline tickets in India.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin, author of the controversial rule to set caps on debit fees, yesterday denounced assertions by banks and credit unions that having card giants MasterCard and Visa set prices for debit is preferable to having the Federal Reserve set price limits on the increasingly popular form of payment.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin, author of the controversial rule to set caps on debit fees, yesterday denounced assertions by banks and credit unions that having card giants MasterCard and Visa set prices for debit is preferable to having the Federal Reserve set price limits on the increasingly popular form of payment.

A consortium of technology companies with banking-industry connections is urging lawmakers to delay implementation of the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rules, warning they could heighten risk by forcing banks to reduce their investments in security and fraud-protection services.

Consumer protections under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 should be applied to small-business credit cards, according to a lead-generation website that tracks card products.

The state of Washington's Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) has ordered "Home Credit Law Center" - a California-based mortgage loan modification company - to stop operating in the state.

WASHINGTON – Jaws were dropping around Capitol Hill last week as CUNA President Bill Cheney began a tour of Senate offices with Camden Fine, head of the credit unions’ most virulent enemy, the Independent Community Bankers Association, to lobby for delay of the interchange rule.

In March, 953 cases representing 1,043 plaintiffs were filed U.S. District Courts for alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has announced St. Louis Park, Minn.-based collection agency Allied Interstate will pay $90,000 to settle abusive collection charges.

WASHINGTON — Cynthia Blankenship was likely not the first banker to discuss the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s overdraft guidance — a significant cause of worry for industry executives — with FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair.