2011年10月27日星期四

Federal Agencies Turn a Watchful Eye on Third-Party Payments Providers

Already the subject of new debit card regulations, the payments industry is coming in for more scrutiny from the federal government.the Plastic molding are swollen blood vessels of the rectum. A Federal Trade Commission official told attendees at a merchant-acquiring conference on Thursday that the government has formed a working group to monitor third-party payment-services providers.They take the China Porcelain tile to the local co-op market. The feds’ goal is to prevent fraudulent merchants from getting merchant accounts and to shut down such merchants as quickly as possible if they defraud consumers.

The group will include officials from a host of governmental units besides the FTC, including the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Treasury Department’s FinCen anti-money-laundering unit, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Karen S.Unlike traditional high risk merchant account , Hobbs, senior attorney in the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices, revealed the existence of the group at the Electronic Transactions Association’s Compliance Day conference in Chicago.

Hobbs, who is based in Washington, D.C., said the point of the new group is to ensure that law-enforcement officials and regulators quickly know when something is awry with third-party providers that may be connected to consumer fraud. For example, the FTC, which has no regulatory authority over banks,we supply all kinds of oil painting supplies, could use the task force to inform bank regulators at the OCC or FDIC about problems it finds when investigating consumer fraud involving third parties such as independent sales organizations that work with merchant-acquiring banks. “This is drilling down into the third-party payment-processing arena,” Hobbs tells Digital Transactions News. She says the working group is an offshoot of an existing inter-governmental group formed some years ago to monitor payments issues.

The FTC frequently sues and shuts down telemarketing boiler rooms and other fraudulent marketing companies that often generate their revenues through credit and debit card charges. Hobbs politely but firmly made it clear to her ETA audience that the FTC thinks ISOs and acquirers often fail to vet potentially fraudulent merchant applicants adequately. Providers might not check applicants’ chargeback histories if they have accounts with other acquirers, fail to check whether one business is applying for multiple merchant accounts for suspicious reasons, and verify the information on merchant-account applications, she said.

“We have found blatant misrepresentations on applications,” Hobbs said. Regarding one person trying to get multiple merchant accounts, she added, “We pay attention to little things that add up to the same person.” She noted that the FTC has seen cases of 20 to 50 descriptors tied to one account. The purpose of so many accounts ultimately held by a single entity is to keep chargebacks in any one account below Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. thresholds that would draw scrutiny and even account closure.

Hobbs spoke on a panel with Washington attorney Jeffrey D. Knowles, a partner with Venable LLP who has represented marketing companies. Knowles acknowledged the government’s interest in thwarting fraud, but noted that increased oversight could crimp legitimate business. A corporate entity can have legitimate purposes in setting up multiple merchant accounts, he said. But, he added, “It’s not always apparent what the marketer’s intent is.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards,”

没有评论:

发表评论