The untapped potential of IT chargeback

Cover title. "May 1997."Includes bibliographical references (p. 24-25).Jeanne W. Ross, Michael R. Vitale, Cynthia M. Beath

The laws, regulations, guidelines, and industry practices that protect consumers who use gift cards

This paper discusses consumer protections available to gift-card users. Specifically, it examines the ways in which value loaded at the time of purchase is protected for future card use or returned to consumers when the card is not used or has expired. The consumer protection information included in this paper is derived from a number of sources, including several types of state statutes, Federal Trade Commission decisions, financial industry regulatory agency guidelines, and previous interviews with payments industry experts regarding practices concerning network-branded gift cards. This paper expands research begun by the Payment Cards Center in 2004 into prepaid cards generally and the protections available to consumers who use gift cards specifically.Payment systems

CGIAR Cost Allocation Guidelines: Financial Guidelines Series, no. 5

Financial guideline no. 5, published by the CGIAR Secretariat in December 2008 as part of the Financial Guidelines Series

Better Than Cash? Global Proliferation of Debit and Prepaid Cards and Consumer Protection Policy

A global deluge of debit cards and prepaid cards – payment cards that do not require consumers to qualify for credit – is rapidly making electronic payment systems accessible to much of the world’s population that previously paid in cash for goods and services. The global proliferation of payment cards is fraught with both risk and promise for consumers. The billions of people of low to moderate incomes who are being hurled from a cash economy into the era of electronic payments in emerging economies by the proliferation of debit and prepaid cards are particularly vulnerable to abuses by banks and merchants. Unregulated private lawmaking by payment card associations and card issuers will not ensure that consumers are treated fairly, due to their countervailing incentives to attract merchants into their payment networks. Technological solutions promote efficiency and limit abuse, but cannot ensure fair resolution of consumer-merchant disputes. Payment card associations such as Visa and MasterCard operate chargeback systems for resolving disputes, but chargeback systems cannot function in cash economies without merchants’ consent, because cash transactions are usually anonymous, evidenced at most by a receipt, and do not involve an intermediary. However, while the lack of anonymity inherent in the use of payment cards entails risk for consumer privacy, it also makes possible greater transparency in payment systems. As billions of vulnerable consumers become connected to electronic payment systems, chargeback systems become a possible means of protecting them from merchant misconduct. Moreover, this lack of anonymity makes possible new ways of protecting consumers, such as disclosure to consumers of outcomes of the Visa and MasterCard chargeback systems through merchant ratings such as those posted on eBay. There is a risk that nations with emerging economies will uncritically emulate regimes of consumer protection adopted in the United States and Europe. These regimes in many respects lack a consistent conceptual foundation and fail to address problems, such as bank fees, access to banking services and payment system insolvency, that are poorly addressed in developed countries if they are addressed at all. For example, debit and prepaid card transactions are both a convenient means of obtaining cash and a substitute for cash, but this does not justify denying chargeback rights to consumers who use debit and prepaid cards, as if they had paid in cash. Prior scholarship on payment cards has suffered from the assumption that American use of credit cards is normative. This article demonstrates that it is a global anomaly; most consumers worldwide use payment cards for convenience rather than a source of long-term credit, and that is why debit cards have become popular so quickly. Moreover, fees and charges imposed on consumers for payment card services are one of the most prolific sources of consumer complaints. Fee regulation should be regarded as a legitimate part of payments law in scholarship on the subject, and should not be ignored in establishing a regulatory system to govern debit and prepaid cards

Case study

"September 1997."Includes bibliographical references.Jeanne W. Ross

After the hype: e-commerce payments grow up

On June 18, 2003, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Electronic Commerce Payments Council (eCPC) of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association co-hosted a workshop forum to explore areas of mutual interest related to the proliferation of e-commerce payments. This was the second event jointly sponsored by the groups. ; The first forum, “The Future of e-Commerce Payments,” which was held in June 2002, focused on the possibilities ahead, as various electronic payment channels displace paper checks as a primary payment form. The more recent forum, “After the Hype: e-Commerce Payments Grow Up,” continued the dialog, emphasizing recent economic and marketplace realities that impact ecommerce payments innovation, acceptance, and maturation. ; Participants and speakers included Federal Reserve staff and industry leaders.Electronic commerce

Semi-Annual Report to Congress for the Period of April 1, 1983 to September 30, 1983

[Excerpt] This is the tenth semiannual report of the Department of Labor\u27s Office of Inspector General - and my first as the Department\u27s Inspector General. Since I served as the Deputy Inspector General from March 23, 1983, until my confirmation on August 4, 1983, many of the activities described in this report reflect my own sense of priorities and future direction for this Office. There are two priorities I want to highlight in this message: • our increasing emphasis on preventing fraud and mismanagement in Labor\u27s programs, and • our efforts to ensure that the OIG is, itself, a model of efficiency and effectiveness