Category: Risk/Compliance | Page 2

Ups, Downs, and “Frothiness” in Between: PF Day Wrap

Interest in the business of payment facilitation is growing, not just among companies lured in to monetize transactions and the investors excited to fund fast-growing startups, but also regulators wanting to make sure a new third party isn’t taking advantage of consumers.

And all these eyes on the industry mean payment facilitators themselves, and companies thinking about switching to the model, are hungry for more information about how to run their business to take full advantage of all the opportunity in the space.

Super Sloppy Security Gushes Aadhaar PII

In many respects, India’s 9-year-old Aadhaar national ID system is a global model for simplifying payments, banking and payroll operations. It was designed to be a comprehensive database allowing easy access to bank accounts and other payments mechanisms. As a concept, it worked brilliantly.

But according to data from a report from the Centre For Internet and Society, it also serves as a world-class example of security recklessness, with methods so sloppy that they could have exposed sensitive data about almost a quarter of a billion Indian citizens.

Compliance from the PF Point of View: PF Day Preview

When a technology company decides to take on payments, it often seems like a natural next step. Who wouldn’t want to extend their services by enabling clients to accept payments?

Then reality sinks in. Adding the technical capability to move money is one thing. Opening the door to the complex web of federal and state regulation and card brand rules is another.

PayPal, Visa Extend Partnership to APAC

Visa and leading payment facilitator PayPal announced an expansion of a strategic partnership they entered into in the U.S. last summer.

The partnership is an agreement to work jointly to grow the adoption of mobile and digital payments. This latest agreement covers the Asia Pacific region.

As was the case in the U.S., the APAC partnership includes PayPal’s use of the Visa’s Digital Enablement Program (VDEP), which gives PayPal access to Visa’s tokenization technology. This enables PayPal users to conduct secure transactions at point-of-sale locations where Visa is accepted.

Worldwide Focus on Fintech Regulation Signals Opportunity for PFs

In the U.S., regulators, businesspeople and other groups are in the midst of a debate about how financial technology firms should be regulated. The OCC’s proposed special purpose national bank charter for fintech companies is one example; a white paper outlining policy objectives around the fintech sector issued by the Obama administration at the end of its term is another.

But the U.S. is hardly the only place where the deliberation over just how to oversee this rising sector is taking place. Financial technology is on the minds of governments worldwide, which signals real opportunity for payment facilitators.

CFBP Wants Payments Firms To Police Consumers

In a telling lawsuit, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Monday (June 6) sued processor Intercept Corp. and two of its executives for”enabling unauthorized and other illegal withdrawals from consumer accounts by their clients” and ne having “turned a blind eye to blatant warning signs of potential fraud or lawbreaking by its clients.”

This move is interesting in that it places processors—and, presumably, others in the payments arena—in the role of quasi-law-enforcement. Is a mobile carrier to blame if customers use their phones to make obscene phonecalls, sell drugs or arrange murders? Is a hardware store to blame if someone buys a hammer and uses it to attack someone?

Feds Peer Into Payments Regulatory Crystal Ball—And Get Headaches

For whatever consolation it offers, the feds overseeing payments-related regulatory issues are as apprehensive as payment facilitators. As the payments world is undergoing massive change in new and different ways of handling payments—an area where PFs lead—Justice and Treasury top brass are struggling to figure out the right ways to execute oversight.

Indeed, there’s even talk of adopting a European-like saferoom approach, where startups have a limited window to explore and innovate without worrying about regulators cracking down. It’s a saferoom in the sense that no idea is too risky to not be explored, even for a limited period of time. In other words, regulators are toying with the idea of whether it’s sometimes best to not regulate at all.

Visa Offering More Goodies For PF Merchant Magicians

When Visa on Tuesday (Feb. 9) officially rolled out its Visa Consumer Transaction Controls program, it provided puzzle pieces that payment facilitators are much better positioned to use than others in the payments arena.

What the program does is it allows account holders “to set simple, convenient, and effective spending controls, receive transaction alerts, or even temporarily suspend their accounts using a simple on/off feature,” Visa said. “Spending controls can be applied to different transaction types, date ranges, or overall card spending to offer consumers visibility and control over their money. Alerts can be sent by text, mobile app, or email in when transactions take place.” The magic is that these are capabilities that Visa will support, but others will have to put the programming effort into integrating these apps, mobile devices and anything else. The apps that PF merchants will be using can leverage these or not. Few merchants will see much reason to put in the development talent to make them happen as they don’t directly boost sales. That’s where PF magic comes in.

Walmart Pay: For The Retailer Who’s Given Up Trying To Get His Way

When Walmart last week introduced Walmart Pay, it was shown to be a simple app that would accept “any major payment type” but it would only work at Walmart. In short, it was the last thing that interchange-fee-hating Walmart wanted to do, especially in the mobile world. MCX’s original vision, a merchant utopia where transactions were done in the non-interchange grab-the-money-directly-from-the-shopper’s-bank-account universe and one app was used at thousands of different merchant stores, was Walmart’s dream.

Mike Cook is the Walmart Senior VP/Assistant Treasurer who initiated the idea of MCX and pushed it so aggressively that many involved—and especially those who chose to not be involved—said the name virtually stood for Mike Cook Exchange. When Walmart Pay was announced, it was Cook whose name was on a statement issued to the media. Said Cook: “We remain committed to MCX, and recently launched acceptance of CurrentC in all of our locations in the Columbus market. We view Walmart Pay and CurrentC as complementary mobile payments solutions, and expect the two to build off each other’s success.” Walmart expects “the two to build off each other’s success”? If Walmart had even the slightest confidence that MCX and CurrentC were going to enjoy even a modicum of success, Walmart Pay wouldn’t have been rolled out. It’s true they will support both—there’s not a lot of reason to not do so—but Walmart Pay is everything Walmart didn’t want to do.

Deloitte: Ignorance Isn’t Bliss. It’s Killing Mobile Payments

On Wednesday (Dec. 9), Deloitte released a major mobile report and concluded that mobile payments is suffering from a payments industry self-inflicted wound: an almost criminal lack of shopper and store associate education about mobile payments.

This is one of those good news/bad news situations. The good news is if the payments industry leaders act smart, this problem can not only be solved, but reversed. Consumer and store employee education will sharply boost mobile payments usage—and that will on top of a continual influx of new mobile shoppers as more people upgrade to NFC-friendly smartphones. The bad news is—when was the last time you saw a lot of payments industry leaders acting smart?