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IndustryUpdate

• Building on a long-standing tradition of sustainable business practices, environmentally conscious outdoor gear outfitter Patagonia Inc. will begin offering
store credit for used, but wearable store clothing, which it plans to refurbish and resell online. Patagonia also plans to launch a Worn Wear website to
provide information about the program and to motivate customers to donate old garments by offering them discounts on new purchases.
Patagonia garnered attention in 2011 when it encouraged customers not to purchase its products during a Black Friday campaign. In 2013, it launched
Common Threads, a program that promoted recycling, reusing, repairing and reducing consumption. The program later rebranded as Worn Wear and
shifted focus to repairs at a Patagonia-owned facility and through online videos, where it offers tutorials on do-it-yourself repairs.

• Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. LLC luxury fashion brand Last Call marks the latest U.S. retail chain to deploy Theatro's hands-free, voice-controlled wearable
devices to improve employee communications within its stores. The devices are being touted for their ability to streamline communications across
organizations and improve day-to-day in-store operational execution and teamwork, according to the Dallas-based technology startup.
"Using the Theatro system has allowed us to increase our in-store productivity and execution," said Kristi Allison, Vice President of Last Call Stores &
Operations. "The solution has significantly streamlined store communication and improved our customer service. In addition to reducing time spent
communicating between associates, we are also using the solution to improve the in-store experience for customers by locating desired product quickly
and efficiently."

ANNOUNCEMENTS will be chaired by Mike McGirr, Senior Vice President of
Compliance and Risk for Adyen. RunSignUp LLC Chief
Finance and Operations Officer Kevin M. Harris will
Accion launches fintech acceleration fund serve as the committee's second in command.

Accion International and Quona Capital closed the FinCEN fines California bank
Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund. This fund is a global
fund devised to catalyze fintech innovations to improve In February 2017, the Financial Crimes Enforcement
the quality and availability of financial services for Network (FinCEN) assessed a $7 million civil money
underserved populations. The fund focuses on accelera- penalty against Merchants Bank of California N.A.,
tion of alternative credit, payments, small and medium citing "willful violations" of several provisions of the
enterprise finance, and insurance technology in emerg- Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Simultaneously, the Office of
ing markets in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Comptroller of the Currency assessed a $1 million
Asia. The fund received $141 million in commitments civil money penalty against Merchants for deficiencies
from an array of leading institutional investors. in the bank's practices that led to violations of previous
consent orders entered into by Merchants, among other
Payfacs receive boost from ETA violations.
In a nod to the growing significance of payfacs, the
Electronic Transactions Association recently launched Jamal El-Hindi, FinCEN Acting Director, said, "[H]ere
the Payments Facilitator Committee. The ETA stated we had an institution run by insiders essentially to pro-
the committee "will identify current and emerging vide banking services to MSBs that the insiders owned,
technology, business, policy and compliance-related combined with directions from Bank leadership to staff
issues that shape the continuing growth of this market." to ignore BSA requirements with respect to those MSB
Composed of ETA member companies, the committee customers and others."

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