COVID19 has led to speculation that the pandemic could be the catalyst for the arrival of the cashless society, but research suggest that our assumptions on how the pandemic is shaping payments may need revisiting.

Stay-at-home measures and pandemic fears have led to an increase in online shopping. At the same time, some brick and mortar merchants are refusing cash as a defense against germs. Nonetheless, consumers haven’t abandoned cash just yet. 
Rachel Huber, senior analyst in payments at Javelin Strategies and Research completed a study on the health of cash for ATM provider Cardtronics in late 2019. Given the pandemic, the company thought that she should do another survey to see how the pandemic changed things. 

To give you a sneak preview, it might be too soon to call it a day for cash payments just yet. And our assumptions about who is using cash and why may not be correct. In looking at cash in the context of other payments, Huber learned a few things about contactless adoption as well. 

You can hear about how things are playing out in the episode and find the complete study online. 

Interested in becoming an IPA member and helping to shape the future of payments? Reach out today and talk to us about the benefits of joining. Go to www.ipa.org  to learn more.

Listen to this episode now. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) today filed its motion for summary judgement in the PayPal case. This filing comes in response to PayPal’s own motion for summary judgement from May. In brief, the Bureau is urging the Court to deny PayPal’s motion for summary judgement and to consider its motion for summary judgement. The Bureau also defends the Prepaid Rule in its entirety and argues that PayPal’s challenges distort the governing statutory framework, the Bureau’s reasons for adopting the Rule, and the scope of the Rule itself, and asks the Court to reject them. 
 
Specifically, the Bureau lays out the following arguments in defense of the Prepaid Rule: 
 

• Congress delegated the Bureau broad authority to promulgate rules to ensure that consumers understand the terms and conditions of financial products so that they can make informed financial decisions.
• The Rule easily satisfies the Administrative Procedures Act’s requirement for reasoned decision making.
• The Bureau thoroughly considered the benefits and costs of the Rule in compliance with its statutory obligations
• The Rule’s disclosure requirements are entirely consistent with the First Amendment.

 
In addition, the Bureau argues that even if the Court concluded that some of PayPal’s challenges had merit, that would not warrant the wholesale invalidation of the Rule that PayPal seeks. The Bureau, therefore, requests that if the Court rules one portion of the rule is invalid, the court should “sever and affirm” the remainder.
 
PayPal will now have the opportunity to file a reply in support of its motion for summary judgment and opposition to the Bureau’s motion for summary judgment, which is due by August 21, 2020. We will discuss this development further our Monthly GRWG call, which will take place on Thursday, June 9th at 2 PM ET.

The COVID19 pandemic has created new challenges for individuals, businesses, and government agencies as they try to manage money and deliver payroll or benefits. 

Prepaid cards have filled gaps for a variety of payments, and in this episode Lori Breitske and Jerry Uffner, from payments processor FIS, explain how. They talk about how prepaid has been used for everything from school lunch benefits to payroll. They also cover how new developments will create payments innovations that will yield benefits beyond the current crisis. 

This podcast contains an edited extract of the audio portion of a Webinar presented by the IPA and FIS. 
You can find a video of the full Webinar at our site or on our YouTube channel.

Interested in becoming an IPA member and helping to shape the future of payments? Reach out today and talk to us about the benefits of joining.