A new study, published March 9, 2023, by NICE Actimize, identified a 92 percent hike in fraud attacks between 2021 and 2022. Consistent with other industry data, findings were based on a $110 trillion trove of anonymized data from online and offline payments channels, including P2P, ACH, wires, checks, and card transactions.
NICE found fraudsters increasingly sophisticated and relentless as they mounted traditional account takeovers and experimental first-party and third-party attacks designed to trick financial institutions into approving fraudulent transactions and opening fraudulent accounts, according to Craig Costigan, CEO, NICE Actimize.
"Fraudsters are leveraging faster payments innovation to conduct sophisticated scams involving money mules who transfer funds away from the FI—funds that are often unrecoverable," he said in a statement.
It's official: beginning in July, every federally insured financial institution in the United States will have access to the real-time payment network FedNow. The Federal Reserve heralded the launch of its first new payment network since the ACH on March 15, 2023. Plans are to begin a formal certification process for FedNow participation in April that includes a testing curriculum.
A production validation process to confirm readiness will begin in June. FedNow joins RTP, a real-time payment network developed by The Clearing House, which is owned by many of the nation's largest banks. TCH counts 312 financial institutions (FIs) receiving payments over RTP, with a majority of those banks and credit unions accessing the network via core processors.
A federal appeals court upheld a legal settlement requiring Mastercard and Visa to pay out $5.6 billion, or more, to 12 million-plus retailers. In doing so, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals swatted away arguments that the class action should not have been granted because of confusion over who deserved compensation and that way too much money had been awarded to the retailers' legal team.
The National Retail Federation, the National Association of Convenience Stores and other trade groups helped to spearhead the class-action lawsuit by businesses alleging that Visa, Mastercard and the biggest bank issuers of Mastercard and Visa cards conspired to overcharge retailers on interchange in violation of federal antitrust law.
In an ongoing effort to protect consumers from getting stuck in endless billing cycles after canceling subscriptions, the Federal Trade Commission proposed amending the Negative Option Rule, which was originally introduced in 1973. New provisions unveiled March 23, 2023, would make opting out as easy as opting into services, according to FTC Chair Lina M. Khan.
"Some businesses too often trick consumers into paying for subscriptions they no longer want or didn't sign up for in the first place," Khan said in a statement. "The proposed rule would require that companies make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for one. The proposal would save consumers time and money, and businesses that continued to use subscription tricks and traps would be subject to stiff penalties."
Fintech Meetup organizers welcomed more than 3,000 banking, payments and fintech professionals to the Las Vegas Aria Resort and Casino on March 19, 2023, for three days of presentations, demos, table talks and one-on-one meetings. This followed two years of hosting virtual meetings. In opening comments, Simran Rekhi Aggarwal, founder of Fintech Meetup, said, "We can't wait to see all the amazing opportunities that are created as a result of the 30,000-plus meetings we're facilitating for you over the coming days."
Aggarwal further noted that Fintech Meetup is designed to foster collaboration. Like the tech-driven industry it serves, she added, the platform continues to evolve, with a Hub and Spoke feature planned for 2024 to support co-located events, meetups and activities. 
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