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NewsBriefs

Pat Ford, vice president, strategic client relations at Vantiv and WSAA president, services sectors. The department pre-
said the association is "pleased and excited" to be returning to Scottsdale this viously published guidelines for the
year, based on very favorable responses in the past. "Our attendance numbers bank and credit union, capital mar-
are on pace to exceed previous years and obviously we are very grateful for the ket, and asset management and in-
strong participation by our loyal sponsors and exhibitors," he added. surance sectors. The fourth and final
report of the series, published July 31,
Kroger, Visa battle over interchange heats up 2018, provides guidance for fintech

Foods Co. Supermarkets, a unit of The Kroger Co., stated it would cease firms.
accepting Visa Inc. credit card payments as of Aug. 14, 2018, unless the two
parties reached an agreement to reduce interchange fees the card brand charges U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven
Foods Co. The ban is expected to impact 21 stores and five fuel centers located T. Mnuchin said Treasury staff mem-
in California. Acceptance of Visa debit and other major credit cards, including bers who crafted the reports met with
Kroger's Mastercard-affiliated rewards program, will remain in effect. numerous stakeholders in consumer
financial data aggregation, lending,
Kroger spokesman Chris Hjelm told Bloomberg that Kroger, which operates payments and credit servicing sec-
2,800 retail food stores under various banner names, could expand the ban to tors, and he expects ensuing recom-
other stores. He added that when the amount retailers pay in card fees "gets mendations to drive rapid adoption
out of alignment, as we believe it is now, we don't believe we have a choice but of competitive technologies, data se-
to use whatever mechanism possible to get it back in alignment." According curity and operational efficiencies.
to market data, Kroger's five-year quarterly profit margin has averaged 1.86 The goal is to simplify regulatory
percent. standards and create a financial sys-
tem that supports all stakeholders,
Treasury's regulatory easement may benefit fintechs including nonbank finance and fin-
techs, he added.
In response to Executive Order 13772, issued in February 2017, the U.S. Depart-
ment of the Treasury has been easing restrictions pertaining to key financial U.S. in cybercrime crosshairs,
researchers say

Data protection methodologies and
legislation have made little impact on
international cybercrime, according
to a new study published Aug. 8, 2018
by U.K.-based Juniper Research Ltd.
The Future of Cybercrime & Security:
Threat Analysis, Impact Assessment &
Leading Vendors 2018-2023 predicts
a plethora of attacks will continue
to grow, defrauding organizations
of more than 146 billion personal
records worldwide over the next five
years.

Researchers place the United States
at the epicenter of criminal activity
due to the country's disparate meth-
odologies for storing and transmit-
ting data. The resulting patchwork of
vulnerabilities makes U.S. firms vul-
nerable to opportunistic criminals,
researchers noted. Without addition-
al protections in place, experts said,
more than half of international data
breaches are expected to originate in
U.S. companies by 2023 .

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