Payments

The Federal Reserve scored some important legal victories in lawsuits challenging its discretion to grant or deny applicants for master accounts. But whether those victories will last through the appeals process or scrutiny from Congress is uncertain.

Payments Innovation Association CEO Brian Tate sees new trends in how technology is transforming payments technologies that are secure, safe and fair.

The credit and debit card-issuing giant's Chase Media Solutions will help fund new loyalty programs to offset downward pressure on card-swipe fees and the potential erosion of card spending volume from the rise of faster payments and open banking, experts say.

Visa is working with Thunes; LemFi and Western Union to expand its reach; Swift has completed testing of 38 global digital currencies, and more.

Weekend direct deposit would benefit workers, consumers and businesses. The Federal Reserve itself said it was in favor of such an expansion nearly a decade ago. There is no better time than now.

Banking regulators and the Department of Justice must decide whether the blockbuster deal raises antitrust concerns. Looming over their analyses are questions about how broadly or narrowly to define the relevant markets.

Ambitious women who feel trapped in their roles sometimes find themselves competing against others with the same goals. An effective way to advance may require stepping off the most obvious path, according to executives sharing their personal experiences at American Banker's Payments Forum.

A federal appeals court is putting the transfer of a lawsuit challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on hold pending the outcome of a hearing on the suit's appropriate venue.

Judge Mark T. Pittman sided with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in ordering the case be moved from Texas to the District of Columbia due to "forum shopping."

The bank is launching KeyVAM, a virtual account management offering it designed with fintech Qolo. Both companies said the nature of the relationship was as important as the technology it produced.

Amazon is working with Stripe to expand its Just Walk Out retail stores in Australia and Canada; Safaricom is working with Onafriq to support remittances sent via M-Pesa to Ethiopia; and more.

A new crop of AI-powered products from Visa tackles scams beyond the company's network to include account-to-account payments and digital wallets.

The potential deal between the major card networks and merchants would see swipe fees reduced and capped for at least three years, pending approval by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to release neutral credit card pricing data in the coming months to help consumers get the best deal, according to Director Rohit Chopra. Deceptive reward programs, late fees and data portability remain concerns, too, he says.

Banks, especially big ones, have become too dependent on hidden-fee income. As the consumer credit market evolves toward greater transparency, the CFPB's rules will be the least of their problems.

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Fiercely polarized U.S. politics. Rapidly multiplying payments options on social media networks and elsewhere. Those factors and more are making it harder than ever for banks to combat illicit financial transactions.

Despite further delays, the country has taken two key steps to opening up access to its Real-Time Rail, including allowing payment companies to participate without a bank partner, but it has yet to commit to a date for the project to go live.

M&T Bank creates new chief communications officer role, Citi cuts London investment banking jobs as deal drought persists, new report by McKinsey advises banks to institute artificial intelligence from headquarters rather than by divisions, and more in our weekly news roundup.

The launch of Apple Pay a decade ago set the tone for how the tech giant would interact with banks and credit unions in the years to come. The Justice Department is now pushing back.

Criminals who buy and sell consumer data on the dark web are perpetrating increasingly complex credit and debit card fraud schemes, according to the card network's latest threats report.