Flashback to March 2021 – the U.S. Government had just issued its third, and largest, round of COVID-19 stimulus checks. March’s issuance of $1,400 quickly followed the $600...
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In an ever-changing landscape, keep ahead of the curve with insights and industry news from Optimized Payments.
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The Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation II Final Ruling
Author: Alan Vickness Cheers from merchants could be heard from the rafters in anticipation of the opportunity to reduce debit card processing costs, because on October 3, 2022, the Federal Reserve Board finalized the updates to Regulation II concerning the routing...
NACHA rule for WEB Debit entries takes effect on March 19. Are you ready?
In an effort to reduce fraud, Nacha is moving forward with implementation of a rule enhancement for authentication of account numbers that are accepted for the first time by merchants. The rule was first slated to take effect a year ago, but Nacha agreed to extend the...
The Evolution of Square
I read an article in The Financial Brand recently that talked about Square's growing ecosystem threating the future of banking. I admit this had me intrigued, so I did a little digging to better understand the article's position. If you don't know much about Square,...
Don’t lose sight of the April 2021 Payment Brand updates!
Last month, I wrote about the recent and coming changes announced by the Payment Brands. April is six short months away and is when the remainder of the changes will go into effect. New interchange structures and fees aside, some of the Visa updates will force many...
Interac Debit is more than just a retail payment option
Since Interac hit the scene in 1984, they have been providing merchants with a PIN-secured, lower-cost option over traditional credit cards in the card-present space; but they are a whole lot more. Interac is the most popular payment method in Canada, accounting for...
Managing Costs in the COVID World
COVID seems to have changed everything about our everyday lives, including making a huge impact on card payments. We’d like to provide some insights into what we have seen in our data over the past 6 months of COVID: E-commerce Shift This one is easy. Most of us have...