Law and regulation

An estimated 440 different collection agencies and creditors were sued between Jan. 16-31, a slight increase from 426 sued in the first half of the month, according to data from U.S. District Courts.

In a warm-up for tomorrow’s Capitol Hill hearing on the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed debit-interchange rules, merchants’ representatives during a press conference today said that unless the rules are left unchanged, merchants might be forced to lay off employees.

BB&T Corp. is launching a prepaid card that costs slightly more per month than some competing products — but lacks many back-end fees that have caught the ire of advocacy groups.

The powerful senator who sponsored last year’s amendment to the Dodd-Frank Reform Act regulating debit card interchange is confident his provision will stand, even as the House begins deliberations aimed at changing the provision, or at least delaying its enactment.

Credit unions now have another reason besides good member service to ensure their ATMs are shipshape — potential $500,000 fines.

Cardtronics Inc. executives during a conference call with analysts Feb. 10 cast their company as a potential beneficiary of financial reform that, as proposed, would require issuers to attach more than one unaffiliated payment network to their debit cards.

Many South Koreans may have to pay more in income taxes this year if the government removes the relief it granted 12 years ago on credit card spending when it announces its taxation policy next month.

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are expected to press the case of credit unions and community banks asking for the Federal Reserve to ease off proposed price restrictions on debit interchange during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee next week.

A former Illinois attorney - disbarred in 2002 after being accused of embezzling from a debt collection service - was sentenced to three years in prison this week for impersonating a former legal colleague in court.

Warning lawmakers that the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rules likely would thwart national job growth, the American Bankers Association and 55 other state and community banking associations urged members of Congress in a Feb. 8 letter to “intervene immediately” to block the rule’s implementation.

Credit card issuers in South Korea have stopped charging customers cash-advance handling fees, a spokesperson for the Credit Finance Association of Korea confirms to PaymentsSource.

Visa Inc. will allow merchants to offer discounts or other incentives to steer customers to a particular form of payment, including to a specific network brand or to any card product such as a “nonreward” Visa credit card, under terms of its settlement of an antitrust suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, the card brand announced last week.

Tobias Boyland, former owner of several Buffalo, N.Y. area collection agencies, is being sought by U.S. Marshals after he failed to surrender to start a 15-year prison sentence.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the financial-services watchdog agency Congress mandated last year as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, on Feb. 3 launched its website, laying the groundwork for soliciting consumer complaints about credit cards and other financial-services products.

MasterCard Worldwide CEO Ajay Banga expressed concern about the effects of the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed debit-interchange rules, but he also sketched out various scenarios in which MasterCard may benefit during an analyst conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings.

Banks in China face tougher scrutiny of credit card issuance under new China Banking Regulatory Commission regulations to curb misuse in the card market.

An increasing number of consumers are being hounded by debt collectors for unsubstantiated debt, according to a new report issued today by Consumers Union and the East Bay Community Law Center.

Unlike some of their peers, Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. don't have to devote a hearty portion of their investor presentations these days to discussing mortgage repurchase requests.

Several groups are continuing to push for a pan-European EMV smart card to compete with cards sponsored by Visa Europe and MasterCard Worldwide. But whether a new card scheme actually will emerge remains as murky as when the efforts first were launched several years ago.

Visa Canada insists the Canadian Competition Bureau’s legal challenge to eliminate the company’s consumer-protection policies has no merit and would be harmful to consumers.