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NewsBriefs

Editor's Note: Following are excerpts from news stories recently posted under Breaking Industry WSAA 2018 charts
News on our home page. For links to these and other full news stories, please visit www.green- payments' new horizons
sheet.com/breakingnews.php?flag=previous_breaking_news.
The Western States Acquirers Asso-
AmEx under scrutiny for alleged foreign exchange scam ciation held its 15th annual confer-
ence Sept. 12 to 13, 2018, at the Hyatt
American Express stock fell following reports of an FBI investigation of the Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa at
company's foreign exchange business unit. Rumors of a bait-and-switch Gainey Ranch. The event highlighted
scheme were first reported by the Wall Street Journal. WSJ journalist AnnaMaria trends and emerging technologies in
Andriotis alleged the company's foreign-exchange unit was recruiting small the ever-changing payments indus-
business clients with offers of low currency-conversion rates, then "quietly try. WSAA representatives said this
raising prices." year's conference drew 936 attendees
Mastercard, Visa offer new terms to and more than 100 exhibitors, exceed-
settle interchange lawsuit, NRF balks ing previous attendance records.
Cash discounting gains
Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay $6.2 billion to settle portions of a class
action lawsuit involving interchange originally filed by millions of retailers momentum, backlash
in 2005. But the National Retail Federation is complaining the proposed new The rising popularity of cash dis-
settlement agreement doesn't go far enough; it wants to see reforms in how counting programs is sparking lively
interchange is set. debates among legal and payments
Consumers, issuers really like debit analysts, most recently with reports
that First Data Corp. deleted a cash
According to the 2018 Debit Issuer Study, just released by PULSE, the debit discount app from its Clover app
card network owned by Discover, issuers saw year-over-year debit transaction marketplace. James Shepherd, CEO at
growth increase by more than 5 percent last year. The survey of issuers also CCSalesPro and cohost of The Green
revealed increases in debit card penetration, activation and usage rates in 2017 Sheet's podcast series, first broke the
vis-à-vis 2016. story on Sept. 19, 2018. These develop-
ments were confirmed by a First Data
memorandum and participating First
Data ISOs.
NACHA takes steps advancing
same-day ACH
The push for faster payments appears
poised to gain momentum. NACHA
– the Electronic Payments Associa-
tion is expanding its same-day ACH
program with a later deadline, higher
transaction limits and faster avail-
ability options. Same-day ACH slash-
es the time it takes to clear and settle
ACH payments – from a few days to
a few hours.

Stripe advances
into POS, financing

Payments analysts are discussing
Stripe's recent moves into counter-
top terminals and alternative financ-
ing, which some say are consistent
with the company's core values and
strategy. In a Sept. 18, 2018, interview
with TechCrunch journalist Jason Del
Ray, Stripe co-founder and CEO John
Collison said the terminal is designed
to unify the online and in-store cus-
tomer experience.

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