1 12 September 2007

News:

While praising the industry for 'rising to the challenge' that the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) presents, Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, said that 'more needs to be accomplished if SEPA is to become the world-class payments system that Europe's citizens and businesses deserve'.

E-Finance & Payments Law & Policy is organising a two-day 'International E-Finance Intensive' at the Grange City Hotel in London, 5-6 November, supported by financial law specialists, Sidley Austin LLP, to examine the global challenges and opportunities facing payment professionals.

The PCI Security Standards Council, an independent body formed by the major payment card brands to manage the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, held its first stakeholder meeting to discuss the challenges of security in the payment card industry.

Features:

With the launch of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) only three months away, a report by the European Central Bank (ECB) on the likely cost and impact of SEPA in shaping the payments industry is a timely reminder of the importance and challenges raised by SEPA. At its most basic, SEPA is concerned with the integration of the European financial markets so that in retail payments, customers are able to make and receive cashless payments throughout the euro area from a single account under the same basic conditions, regardless of their location.

The 2007 World Payments Report, which examines global payment trends and regulatory developments, has recently been released and argues that banks, to remain successful in a post-SEPA environment, have to move towards open-architectures to optimise their payment models and drive transactions volumes. This article, written by the three authors of the Report, Capgemini, ABN AMRO, and the European Financial Management & Marketing Association, sets out the key issues.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, an advisory group who conduct inquiries into science and technology issues for the government to consider, has recently published its report on Personal Internet Security. Given increasing instances of online financial fraud, the Report primarily addresses the threat posed by phishing and recommends that banks should incur statutory liability for online customer fraud. It also examines the possibility of a data breach notification law against banks. Cynthia O'Donoghue and Dominic Hodgkinson, of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, examine the findings.

The Reserve Bank of Australia's Payments System Board, which is charged with overseeing the promotion of competition, efficiency and stability in the country's payments system, recently released its 2007 annual report. This edited extract from the report discusses some of the main trends in the Australian payments system over the past year, including the strong growth in the use of card payments and electronic crediting and debiting of accounts and comparisons internationally.

The Financial Services Authority has recently changed its rules on the sale of payment protection insurance, after finding that many firms were including such insurance as a 'pre-ticked' box on their internet sites. Dan Jenkinson, a financial services regulatory solicitor with TLT Solicitors, examines the change which means that customers must actively choose to purchase PPI when making a purchase.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has confirmed that a national bank may provide banking services to the private manager of a state lottery, including the taking of e-deposits from account holders, despite a general prohibition on national banks participating in lotteries in the United States Code. Agnes Bundy Scanlan and Grant Butler of Goodwin Procter LLP explain the OCC's reasoning.

Payforit has developed a payments service for mobile phones that has received the support of the five major UK mobile phone operators. Anuj Khanna of Tanla Mobile explains how the service works, where it is already used and makes predictions about its future expansion.