A Visa bulletin concerning cashless ATMs, published in December 2021, caused a stir in the ATM and cannabis industries. At issue is a prevalent scheme involving POS devices posing as ATM terminals and routing sale transactions through debit card networks to make sales look like ATM cash withdrawals.
This practice violates Core Rules and Product and Service Rules for both its payment card and debit card networks, Visa representatives stated. André G. Herrera, chief compliance officer at Hypur and former commercial banker and payments executive with 30 years of compliance experience, said Visa's recent communication comes as no surprise.
Consumers, concerned that supply chain challenges would crimp holiday shopping plans, were expected to purchase more gift cards in the 2021 holiday season than previously. That's a key takeaway from survey results released by Fiserv. In a related development, the Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost at least $148 million to gift card scams in the first nine months of the year. That's nearly a 28 percent increase over the $116 million in total losses reported during all of 2020. Fiserv surveyed 1,000 consumers on their holiday shopping plans and found 55 percent were concerned about delivery delays and out-of-stock items. Seventy percent were concerned supply chain issues would impact their ability to purchase electronics.
Growing adoption of buy now, pay later (BNPL) options at checkout prompted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to request information from leading BNPL providers about debt accumulation, regulatory arbitrage and data harvesting practices. Initiated in December 2021, CFPB orders seek details on deferred payment options at point of purchase, stated Rohit Chopra, CFPB director.
Describing BNPL as a new form of layaway, Chopra claimed the practice can speed transactions as well as consumer debt. "We have ordered Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal, and Zip to submit information so that we can report to the public about industry practices and risks," he said.
H&R Block doesn’t like the idea of Square renaming itself Block Inc. The tax-prep company filed a lawsuit against
Block asserting that the payments company’s new name infringes upon the H&R Block family of trademarks. Square changed its corporate name to Block Inc., effective Dec. 10, 2021, although its official NYSE ticker symbol remains SQ. It also left intact its various service offering names, like Square POS and Square Capital.
“The goodwill and brand identity that [H&R] Block has carefully cultivated and nurtured over the last 65 years is under attack by the Silicon Valley fintech company,” H&R Block stated, noting that the new Block Inc. “competes directly with Block in several areas of financial services,” including tax preparation services. 
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