The U.S. House of Representatives voted to end the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point.
The vote was 250-169, which represented a group of all Republicans and 10 Democrats voting to revoke the law.
Operation Choke Point, which began in 2013, leveraged the government’s regulatory power over merchant banks, acquirers and payment processors, forcing them to drop clients engaged in industries like payday lending, firearms and other high-risk sectors especially online like gambling and adult entertainment.
In a statement by U.S. House Rep. Luetkemeyer, the first step has been taken to ensure that federal banking agencies can no longer compel financial or payment institutions from offering financial services to licensed, legally-operating businesses that has been a target not because of potential wrongdoing, but purely on personal and political motivations and without due process.
Businesses and banking institutions must require consumers to use other types of authentication methods, like biometrics, mobile verification codes and geo-location.
Merchants and banks can expect more hackers to breach customer accounts that rely only on usernames and passwords for online authentication.
This type of fraud will only grow more as hackers recognize and take advantage of the opportunity presented by on-file accounts protected by weak authentication.
Many online users use the same username and password for multiple accounts, once those credentials are compromised, criminals can use them to access accounts on different websites.
With the ease and simplicity of password vaults and safes that are easy and efficient to use and user education, this problem finds a solution.
A stronger authentication that goes far beyond username and password, is a powerful tool in effort to prevent data breaches.
E-Pay Security improves – but merchants remain cautious.
U.S. merchants are still reluctant to embrace 3D Secure technology in card-not-present transactions, even though it has vastly improved from the initial version.
3D secure technologies – namely Verified by Visa and SecureCode for MasterCard which offer an extra layer of protection for merchants and its customers. Merchant participation is mandatory to process certain cards in some countries.
Companies providing electronic money services, such as online or mobile payments accounts, have more than doubled since 2013.
This number has been on the rise over the past few years as consumer confidence in alternative payments methods has increased.
UK consumers and businesses are increasingly comfortable with the idea of a cashless economy, in which they might not be able to physically see or access money. More are embracing pre-paid cards, contactless and mobile payment systems for ease of use, efficiency and enhanced security.
According to a specialist financial services regulatory consultancy, there has been a significant increase in the number of electronic money providers registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
E money providers must be authorized with the FCA under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 and meet stringent consumer protection criteria, including adequate capital, the separation of customer’s money from the company’s funds.
The regulatory background is complex and electronic money providers need to ensure that systems, processes and controls are tight to ensure a high level of consumer protection. The FCA is not afraid to place these businesses under a microscope.
Many are concerned that this increase in alternative payments methods will lead to the death of the traditional bank, but only if they fail to innovate and adapt to market trends and consumer needs.
A group of Travel Organizations is urging Congress to create a national commission to study airline competition, after a decade of consolidation and a year of record profits.
A similar commission gauged the Industry’s Health in 1993. But groups including the Travel Technology Association, Airports Council International-North America, the U.S. Travel Association and the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) contend that much has changed in the last quarter-century and the industry deserves a new look.
The recent series of mergers has left relatively few major airlines in control of the industry. Along with Southwest, the remaining three legacy carriers have about 80 percent of the market share for flights within the U.S. Ultra-budget airlines like Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant have provided some competitive fares on select routes, but their presence is not big enough to really affect the whole marketplace.
Lack of domestic competition is not the only issue that traveler and travel agent advocates want the government to look at. U.S. carriers are also forming alliances with international airlines that go beyond basic code sharing agreements. For example, American Airlines and LATAM have inked a deal and are waiting for regulatory approval that would allow them to set prices and schedules on routes between the North and South Americas and easily use each other’s networks to offer connecting flights to their customers.
Other subject that the groups would like to study include:
Agreements with 100 other countries to allow unhindered international travel, under a policy called Open Skies.
Topics above are worth exploring to better understand the competitive landscape of Air Travel in the U.S.
Businesses continue to struggle with the prohibited storage of unencrypted customer payment data. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), merchants are instructed that, Protection methods are critical components of cardholder data protection in PCI DSS Requirement.
PCI DSS applies to every company that stores, processes or transmits cardholder information. Regardless of the size or type of business you operate, the number of credit card transactions you process annually or the method you use to do so, you must be PCI compliant.
Data breach is not a limited, one-time occurrence. This is why PCI compliance is required across all systems used by merchants.
Encryption and Tokenization is a strong combination to protect cardholder at all points in the transaction lifecycle; in use, in transit and at rest.
National Transaction’s security solutions provide layers of protection, when used in combination with EMV and PCI-DSS compliance.
Encryption is ideally suited for any businesses that processes card transactions in a face to face or card present environment. From the moment a payment card is swiped or inserted at a terminal featuring a hardware-based, tamper resistant security module, encryption protects the card data from fraudsters as it travels across various systems and networks until it is decrypted at secure data center.
Tokenization can be used in card not present environments (travel merchants) such as e-commerce or mail order/telephone order (MOTO), or in conjunction with encryption in card present environments. Tokens can reside on your POS/PMS or within your e-commerce infrastructure at rest and can be used to make adjustments, add new charges, make reservations, perform recurring transactions, or perform other transactions in use. Tokenization protects card data when it’s in use and at rest. It converts or replaces cardholder data with a unique token ID to be used for subsequent transactions.
The sooner businesses implement encryption and tokenization the sooner stored unencrypted data will become a thing of the past.
The Virus has been around for a long time, and for the most part was a benign mosquito-borne disease. Zika is transmitted through infected Aedes mosquitoes and can be passed from a pregnant mother to her baby during pregnancy or around the time of birth. It has spread from equatorial Africa into South and Central America as well as the Caribbean.
Recently in the last month, the virus was linked to microcephaly in infants. From October 2015 to January 2016, there were almost 4,000 cases of babies born with microcephaly in Brazil. Before then, there were just 150 cases per year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a travel alert that recommends pregnant women postpone travel to areas where the virus has been reported.
Affected areas
While Zika typically was found in equatorial Africa, the disease has spread and now threatens the bread and butter of most travel professionals in the United States. The affected areas include most of South America, in particular Brazil who is hosting the 2016 Summer Games, and the Caribbean, including several popular tourist destinations.
Airlines took note of this potential threat
Airlines offered refunds to travelers with concerns of the Zika Virus.
The key for travel agencies right now is to keep abreast of the virus and monitor it’s spread via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Contact your preferred suppliers who service destinations that are impacted and become familiar with their cancellation policies.
Be prepared to offer your clients some alternative destinations. One of the best options might be a cruise versus the destination. A cruise might be the answer for your clients as a ship can change itineraries on a moment’s notice.
The shift to EMV is helping to address vulnerabilities in the United States payments ecosystem. It has been shown that EMV can deliver benefits as a part of industry efforts to combat fraud.
EMV migration is a critical focus for enhancing payments security, which is why the current efforts around chip card deployment are greatly beneficial for consumers and merchants alike. EMV technology helps to reduce counterfeit card fraud, as it generates dynamic data with each payment to authenticate the card, after which the cardholder is prompted to sign or enter a PIN to confirm their identity.
The EMV rollout represents a dynamic time for card payments that promises great advances, among them is enhanced security for cardholders. It also presents an opportunity to consider other innovations such as mobile wallets and mobile POS to further engage your customers and drive customer loyalty. When merchants continue to invest in EMV and NFC (near field communications, used for tap-and-pay transactions), the purchases made at their EMV-enabled terminals are made more secure than magnetic stripe.
New mobile payment options such as mobile wallets support EMV and therefore offer this added layer of security. Ultimately, by enabling contactless payments, merchants can also enable more flexibility in addition to increasing security for their customers.
Additionally, industry players are backing major mobile wallets, such as Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay.
Fighting chargebacks is important to business. Whether you process transactions at a point of sale location or operate an e-Commerce business making sure you have implemented a process to dispute your chargebacks is critical.
Basic concepts that can be used to begin learning how to dispute chargebacks for Visa and MasterCard transactions:
Keep accurate records of data that is easily accessible. Keeping track of your sales and products have a much easier time in collecting the information necessary to combat a chargeback.
Act quickly. Don’t wait until you only have a few days left to respond to a chargeback or retrieval request. Responding in a timely fashion shows your processor that this is of concern to you and that you’re taking matters seriously.
Create chargeback packets or templates. These allow you to quickly input specific relevant transaction information to support your view of the transaction being valid. Packets should include documents that support your case against the chargeback.
Compile and submit your packet to your processor in the form that is most convenient for both you and them. Make sure the packet has the original chargeback documents attached as well as your packet with supporting documents.
Monitor your chargebacks to see which ones you’re successful on and which you’re not. This will help you understand what processes are work for each specific chargeback type.
The convenience, simplicity and security of Apple Pay are now available to customers who use U.S. Bank FlexPerks American Express Cards.
U.S. Bank which is the fifth-largest bank in the nation will add TouchID biometric capabilities to its mobile app in March.
The company made the disclosure as part of a notable iOS app update released last Friday. Release appears to include, among other enhancements, improvements such as easier navigation, quicker accessibility to account information, and the ability to search transactions from previous months.
U.S. Bank Minneapolis did not give many details about how TouchID will be used within its iOS app, other than to say for fingerprint authentication for enabled devices.
Many major banks already have TouchID implemented in their mobile apps, including Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Citibank, for example, implemented TouchID last July. Apple introduced TouchID in mid-2013.
Last week, U.S. Bank enabled for Apple Pay use the last of its debit and credit cards that had not been Apple Pay-capable. Apple Pay relies on TouchID for security and authentication.
Apple Pay is now available with the:
U.S. Bank FlexPerks Reserve American Express Card.
U.S. Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards American Express Card.
U.S. Bank FlexPerks Select+ American Express Card.
