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NewsBriefs

Editor's Note: Following are excerpts from news stories recently posted under Breaking Industry Emily Gordon, In-House Counsel at
News on our home page. For the full stories, see Breaking Industry News on our home page, www. Simplifya LLC, said Session's opin-
greensheet.com. ions are at odds with most Ameri-
cans, 73 percent of whom oppose fed-
Visa, MC settle surcharging suit with Canadian merchants eral interference in state marijuana
Visa Canada and Mastercard issued brief statements on June 12 and 13, 2017, legislation, according to a recent poll.
respectively, heralding the settlement of a lawsuit over surcharging rules
brought against the card brands by Canadian merchants in 2011. The settlement Payment service providers are espe-
is subject to court approval in the provinces in which the claims were brought ‒ cially concerned by recent efforts to
British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. rein in the nascent industry. Some
high-risk processors will refrain from
Among the terms agreed upon, the card brands will pay financial settlements onboarding cannabis accounts until
of CAD $19.5 million, pre-tax, apiece, and revise their no-surcharging rules in certain federal guidelines and stan-
a manner similar to their modified U.S. surcharging rules. Neither company dard Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
admitted to any wrongdoing; both emphasized that protections would be in protections are in place.
place for consumers. Revised rules are expected to come into effect 18 months
after court approval of the settlement. SinglePoint Inc. said its subsidiary
SingleSeed plans to accept cryptocur-
Facing federal hostility, cannabis merchants eye bitcoin rency at the POS. The company part-
nered with First Bitcoin Capital Corp.,
Cannabis merchants and payment processors face hurdles on the road to legiti- reflecting the cannabis community's
macy due to regulatory challenges and uncertainties posed by a new presiden- growing interest in alternative cur-
tial administration. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions voiced his opposition to rencies. Wil Ralston, Vice President,
the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment in a May 1, 2017, letter to Congress. Enacted Sales and Marketing at SinglePoint,
in 2014 as part of a larger budgetary bill, the amendment protects state-sanc- stated he expects bitcoin acceptance
tioned medical marijuana dispensaries from being prosecuted by the Depart- to solve banking and underwriting
ment of Justice, a grave mistake according to Sessions. issues.
Trump Administration aims to
overhaul Dodd-Frank, gut CFPB
The Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau's detractors have much to be
happy about now that the Trump
Administration and Congress are
pushing to curb the federal consumer
watchdog agency's power to super-
vise providers of payment and other
financial services.

The Treasury Department, on June
12, 2017, laid out a set of proposals in
a report titled A Financial System that
Creates Economic Opportunities: Banks
and Credit Unions. This came just days
after the House passed the Financial
CHOICE Act, which would revamp
the CFPB and undo many rules im-
posed under the 2010 Dodd-Frank
Act.

The Treasury's new report is the first
in a series intended to identify and
propose changes to onerous federal
regulations, treaties, regulatory guid-
ance, supervisory standards and oth-
er government policies. Like the Fi-
nancial CHOICE Act, the report takes
aim, in particular, at changes ushered
in by the Dodd-Frank Act, an omni-
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