Fintech

A federal appeals court is putting the transfer of a lawsuit challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on hold pending the outcome of a hearing on the suit's appropriate venue.

Judge Mark T. Pittman sided with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in ordering the case be moved from Texas to the District of Columbia due to "forum shopping."

Amazon is working with Stripe to expand its Just Walk Out retail stores in Australia and Canada; Safaricom is working with Onafriq to support remittances sent via M-Pesa to Ethiopia; and more.

The potential deal between the major card networks and merchants would see swipe fees reduced and capped for at least three years, pending approval by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to release neutral credit card pricing data in the coming months to help consumers get the best deal, according to Director Rohit Chopra. Deceptive reward programs, late fees and data portability remain concerns, too, he says.

Preliminary rulings by a Pennsylvania judge will allow a jewelry company that claimed it lost $1.1 million to fraud to move forward with suing individual bank employees.

Banks, especially big ones, have become too dependent on hidden-fee income. As the consumer credit market evolves toward greater transparency, the CFPB's rules will be the least of their problems.

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Fiercely polarized U.S. politics. Rapidly multiplying payments options on social media networks and elsewhere. Those factors and more are making it harder than ever for banks to combat illicit financial transactions.

Despite further delays, the country has taken two key steps to opening up access to its Real-Time Rail, including allowing payment companies to participate without a bank partner, but it has yet to commit to a date for the project to go live.

A key bank stock index ticked up after the Federal Reserve hinted that it could lower rates later this year. But there are still a number of economic uncertainties that are holding shareholders back.