Recent meetings in Montreal and Madrid, separately hosted by Amadis and nexo standards, addressed efforts to standardize global payment acceptance, the organizations stated. Jacques Soussana, secretary general of nexo standards, noted that consumers expect flexible payment options at all points of interaction. "Implementation, management and evolution of such services can be complex, due to the intricate upgrades needed, fragmentation between different stakeholders and increasing regulation," he said in a statement. "The upcoming annual conference is key to bringing the entire value chain together to ensure the ecosystem evolves to suit everyone's needs."
Normand Provost, program manager officer & liaison at nexo, agreed consumers and businesses are adapting to an integrated software culture. "EMV, PCI and ISO were a good start, but we need to address the full transaction chain," he said in a recent interview with The Green Sheet. "Fortunately, European regulators remain focused on globalization, harmonization and interoperability."
In an article titled "Visa, Mastercard Draw New Government Scrutiny Over Debit-Card Routing," the Wall Street Journal reported the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Visa and Mastercard's security tokens (Visa Token Service and Mastercard Digital Enablement Service) for potentially restricting debit card routing competition in online payments.
The article noted that the FTC is already investigating the two major card brands for alleged blocking of merchants from routing payments over other debit card networks. The tokens, which replace cardholder information with a unique digital identifier, are of additional interest to the FTC for potentially inhibiting merchants' processing of debit card transactions on rival networks.
Congres is approaching Visa and Mastercard's practices from another direction. Senator Richard Durbin, D-Ill., wants to put his proposed new credit card routing rules on the legislative fast track. He and Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kan., proposed an amendment to a major defense funding bill that mirrors legislation the two introduced in July 2022 to allow merchant choice in the routing of credit card payments.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking to task a payments company that helps register folks for fundraising events, alleging the outfit tricked consumers into signing up for club memberships they never used, to the tune of about $300 million. The CFPB disclosed it is suing Active Network LLC in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging the Plano, Texas-based firm tricked people registering for fundraising events into enrolling in its annual subscription discount club through the use of "digital dark patterns" and other forms of online deception.
Active Network has been in business since at least 2011 and is used by organizers of charity events, such as fundraising races and YMCA camps, to register and accept payments from participants. The company also operates Active Advantage, a paid membership club offering discounts for products and activities that are rarely related to fundraising events supported on the other side of the house.
Authenticate 2022 held in Seattle in October drew approximately 500 on-site and 400 virtual attendees from the global identity community. Hosted by FIDO Alliance with signature sponsors Google, Microsoft, Visa and Yubico, the three-day event highlighted advanced approaches to online and mobile authentication in exhibits, live demos, keynote presentations, and interactive breakout and networking sessions. In opening remarks, Andrew Shikiar, executive director at FIDO Alliance, welcomed service providers, enterprises, users, compliance specialists and software developers, all of whom, he noted, are part of FIDO's expanding global ecosystem.
The FIDO standard is designed to improve ease of use, privacy, security and standardization by reducing password reliance to provide a trusted customer experience and drive online service consumption, revenue and profit. Scott Bingham, senior program manager at Microsoft, described authentication as the front door of the customer experience, a process he described as "ask, act, validate," that proves rightful owners are requesting access. "Hackers don't break in; they log in," he said, noting 99.9 percent of security breaches are password-only attacks, including phishing, smishing, social engineering, voice phishing and fake website redirects.
A new study by LexisNexis Risk Solutions offers a glimpse into what financial services companies are spending to comply with regulations, policies and standards regarding financial crimes. The 2022 True Cost of Financial Crime Compliance Study revealed the cost of compliance continues to rise above pre-pandemic levels, up 13.6 percent since 2021, to just shy of $57 billion for U.S. and Canadian firms combined. This comes on the heels of news that the post-pandemic fraud landscape continues to expand. LexisNexis Risk Solutions' True Cost of Fraud Study: Ecommerce and Retail – U.S. and Canada Edition showed the cost of fraud for U.S. financial services firms is between 6.7 percent and 9.9 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Not surprisingly, much of the increase in fraud activity occurs through online and mobile channels. The true cost of fraud includes the actual dollar amount of a transaction, as well as additional costs related to labor and investigations, interest and fees, and external recovery expenses. Frauds can include identity fraud, bogus requests for refunds, bounced checks, account takeovers, fraudulent applications and money laundering, researchers found. In dollar terms, every $1 of fraud loss cost U.S. financial services firms $4 in 2021. That's up from $3.25 in 2019 and $3.64 in 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, LexisNexis Risk Solutions reported.
"The online and mobile fraud landscape continues to evolve," the company stated. "Fraudsters are relentless, constantly seeking new vulnerabilities to exploit. Financial services firms and lending institutions can't ever let down their guard."
The National ATM Council, which represents independent retail ATM providers, suppliers, owners and deployers, is celebrating continued momentum after convening its well-attended 10th anniversary conference. The 501(C) (6) not-for-profit trade association is moving forward on several strategic initiatives aimed at furthering the rights and opportunities of stakeholders in the ATM space. Bruce Renard, executive director of NAC, thanked NAC2022 sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and attendees for making the conference a success.
The event's key supporters included platinum sponsor Hyosung; diamond sponsors Cord Financial Services, OptConnect, NextATM, Digital Network Solutions, Kahuna ATM Solutions, Columbus Data & Services and Switch Commerce; and gold sponsor Genmega. "By all indications from the feedback we've received, NAC2022 was a great success," Renard said. "Our numbers were strong and in line with pre-pandemic levels of attendance and vendor participation levels and everyone spoke favorably of the venue and educational content, which was extensive, even for us." 
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