An April 23, 2021, U.S. Supreme Court decision in the matter of AMG Capital Management LLC v. FTC may have far-reaching consequences for the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, agencies that share enforcement authority over unfair lending practices, legal analysts noted.

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While millions of Americans may not have accounts at financial institutions, that doesn't mean they're being left out of the financial system. As the Electronic Transactions Association details in a new white paper, financial technology companies have made significant strides in meeting the financial needs of America's unbanked an underbanked.

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AI-based analytics provider ThetaRay unveiled a cloud-based version of its popular anti-money laundering (AML) solution on April 26, 2021, in a bid to make fraud prevention accessible to a broader group of banks, fintechs, PSPs and payments infrastructure companies. The cloud-agnostic service works with public and private clouds such as Azure, Google, AWS, IBM Cloud and others, stated Shaun Smith-Taylor, senior director and global head of solutions at ThetaRay.

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The major card brands—Visa and Mastercard—are making way for crypto-payments on their networks. Visa just launched a pilot program that bridges the worlds of digital and traditional currencies by using USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin cryptocurrency backed by the U.S. dollar, to settle transactions on its network using Ethereum, an open source blockchain technology.

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Deluxe Corp., a leading technology provider, entered into an agreement on April 21, 2021, to acquire First American Payment Systems. Deluxe leaders called the $960 million all cash transaction a milestone in the company's 106-year history that will add more than $600 million in recurring annual revenue while expanding distribution and scale.

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April 21, 2021, marked the official launch of "sarie," an instant payment system built by Saudi Payments in partnership with IBM and Mastercard and supervised by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). Designed to enhance the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's payments ecosystem, the service brings instant payments to Saudi banks throughout the region, according to project managers.

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High-profile data breaches, emerging data privacy regulations and rapid digital commerce deployments during a pandemic necessitate advanced approaches to security and compliance, stated Geoff Forsyth, chief information security officer at PCI Pal, a secure payments provider.

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New evidence indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic created a sea change in the way people shop and that touchless commerce is here to stay. Results of a survey just released by consumer research firm Piplsay revealed that for 51 percent of Americans, preferences for touchless technologies have increased amid the pandemic.

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The quick service restaurant (QSR) sector adapted swiftly to online and cashless payments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, payment technologies implemented in haste in 2020 have become integral to the QSR sector, according to Omnichannel Trends 2021, a position paper published by Ingenico, a Worldline brand.

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The deadline for applying for a Paycheck Protection Program loan has been extended, giving sole proprietors, even independent contractors, hard hit by the COVID-19 economic downturn another opportunity to bolster their cash holdings with a helping hand from Uncle Sam.

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News of a Facebook breach, which some experts claim has been underplayed by mass media, continues to trend in social media throughout the information security community. A Jan. 14, 2021, tweet by Alon Gal, chief technology officer at Hudson Rock, initially disclosed that 533 million Facebook users' phone numbers had been leaked to an online forum. The disclosure prompted an angry backlash from security cognoscenti.

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Garima Shah, president at Biller Genie, joined the Orlando Business Journal's 2021 class of 40 Under 40 business leaders. Chosen by OBJ staff and an independent judging panel, this year's award recipients helped Florida communities survive the pandemic, OBJ representatives stated, adding that honorees represent Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Volusia and Brevard counties.

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The Executive Women’s Forum on Information Security, Risk Management & Privacy (EWF) issued a call for speakers on April 2, 2021, for its 19th annual conference, themed Securing the Digital Ecosystem, to be held virtually Oct. 18 to 21, 2021. Event planners stated they are looking for knowledgeable women to share subject matter expertise, real-life experiences, resources and insights at the online event.

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The online fraud-fighting firm Sift reported that its clients saw a 69 percent spike in the average value of fraudulent purchase attempts in 2020 and that the COVID-19 pandemic "played an influential role in the evolution and uptick in online payment frauds."

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