Latest news with #NewYorkStateDepartmentofFinancialServices
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
MoonPay Grabs Coveted BitLicense Approval In New York
MoonPay, a cryptocurrency on-ramp and payments firm with over 20 million users, has been granted a coveted BitLicense and money transmitter license by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The BitLicense approval completes MoonPay's U.S. regulatory coverage, complementing money transmission licenses in 46 other U.S. jurisdictions, as well as registrations in the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Ireland and Jersey, the company said in a press statement on Wednesday. Donald Trump's crypto-friendly administration has made attaining a solid footing in the U.S. all the more desirable for firms as his administration works on federal regulations. The NYDFS BitLicense approval is widely recognized as a gold standard in the crypto industry. The NYDFS approval comes on the heels of MoonPay opening a new headquarters in New York City, which the company said is now its largest U.S. office. 'As a U.S.-founded company with a headquarters in New York City, we're immensely proud of this milestone and look forward to our continued work with regulators nationwide to make crypto accessible to everyone,' said MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright in a statement.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NY passes new laws aimed to save consumers money: What to know
New York consumers will soon be able to more easily cancel their online subscriptions and have better data privacy protections from "Buy Now, Pay Later" lenders under legislation included in the state's 2026 budget and signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last week. "This budget is all about affordability — lowering costs and helping New Yorkers with the rising cost of living," Hochul said. "But our tax cuts, credits and rebates won't be much help if bad actors are able to scam or mislead New Yorkers. These new laws are about fairness, transparency, and accountability and will help consumers save money and spend it wisely." Here's what to know about the newly passed laws. New York businesses now need to make their customers aware of upcoming subscription renewals and price changes as well as provide clear subscription cancellation instructions. Specifically, with this legislation, businesses need to provide consumers the option to cancel their subscription the same way they were able to accept an automatic renewal, continuous service offer or price increase. The law will take effect in July, 60 days after it's been signed. Retail sellers in New York with 500 or more employees statewide and an annual gross revenue of $500,000 or more from sales in the state are now required to offer full cash or credit refunds, equal exchanges or store credit for at least 30 days after an item has been purchased. Sellers' refund policies also need to be prominently displayed. The law will take effect in August, 90 days after it's been signed. NY to send inflation refund checks: How much will you get? New York now has safeguards against "Buy Now, Pay Later" loans, such as disclosure regulations, dispute resolution standards, limits on all charges and fees and data privacy protections. Specifically, this legislation prevents "Buy Now, Pay Later" lenders from using, selling or sharing your data without your consent. The law will take effect 180 days after the state Department of Financial Services enacts the legislation. Businesses in New York need to clearly disclose when prices have been set by an algorithm using a consumer's personal data — coined "surveillance pricing" by the Federal Communications Commission — meaning a company could be charging you a different price than your neighbor for the same product. The law will take effect in July, 60 days after it's been signed. What to know: Proposed regulations aim to better protect NY consumers from overdraft fees Stronger overdraft fee protections are not part of the budget but regulations were proposed by the New York State Department of Financial Services in January and mentioned in Hochul's 2025 State of the State address. If enacted, the proposed regulations would keep state-chartered banks from doing the following: Charging overdraft fees on overdrafts of less than $20 Charging overdraft fees that exceed the overdrawn amount Charging more than three overdraft or non-sufficient funds fees per consumer account per day Charging non-sufficient funds feeds for instantaneously declined electronic transactions Charging multiple non-sufficient funds or overdraft fees for the same transaction, including when a merchant resubmits a declined transaction Charging a "sustained," "continuous" or "daily" fee for each day an overdraft balance is not repaid Charging double fees to cover an overdraft, such as one fee for automatically transferring funds from another account and a second fee for the overdraft itself Processing electronic debit transactions in a manner intended to maximize the number of overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees Charging an overdraft fee for an electronic transaction when the consumer's account indicates sufficient funds at the time the transaction was initiated Emily Barnes reports on consumer-related issues for the USA TODAY Network's New York Connect Team, focusing on scam and recall-related topics. Follow her on X and Instagram @byemilybarnes. Get in touch at ebarnes@ This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY passes new laws aimed to save consumers money: What to know
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New laws in NY to make it easier to cancel subscriptions, boost privacy protections
New York consumers will soon be able to more easily cancel their online subscriptions and have better data privacy protections from "Buy Now, Pay Later" lenders under legislation included in the state's 2026 budget and signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last week. "This budget is all about affordability — lowering costs and helping New Yorkers with the rising cost of living," Hochul said. "But our tax cuts, credits and rebates won't be much help if bad actors are able to scam or mislead New Yorkers. These new laws are about fairness, transparency, and accountability and will help consumers save money and spend it wisely." Here's what to know about the newly passed laws. New York businesses now need to make their customers aware of upcoming subscription renewals and price changes as well as provide clear subscription cancellation instructions. Specifically, with this legislation, businesses need to provide consumers the option to cancel their subscription the same way they were able to accept an automatic renewal, continuous service offer or price increase. The law will take effect in July, 60 days after it's been signed. Retail sellers in New York with 500 or more employees statewide and an annual gross revenue of $500,000 or more from sales in the state are now required to offer full cash or credit refunds, equal exchanges or store credit for at least 30 days after an item has been purchased. Sellers' refund policies also need to be prominently displayed. The law will take effect in August, 90 days after it's been signed. NY to send inflation refund checks: How much will you get? New York now has safeguards against "Buy Now, Pay Later" loans, such as disclosure regulations, dispute resolution standards, limits on all charges and fees and data privacy protections. Specifically, this legislation prevents "Buy Now, Pay Later" lenders from using, selling or sharing your data without your consent. The law will take effect 180 days after the state Department of Financial Services enacts the legislation. Businesses in New York need to clearly disclose when prices have been set by an algorithm using a consumer's personal data — coined "surveillance pricing" by the Federal Communications Commission — meaning a company could be charging you a different price than your neighbor for the same product. The law will take effect in July, 60 days after it's been signed. What to know: Proposed regulations aim to better protect NY consumers from overdraft fees Stronger overdraft fee protections are not part of the budget but regulations were proposed by the New York State Department of Financial Services in January and mentioned in Hochul's 2025 State of the State address. If enacted, the proposed regulations would keep state-chartered banks from doing the following: Charging overdraft fees on overdrafts of less than $20 Charging overdraft fees that exceed the overdrawn amount Charging more than three overdraft or non-sufficient funds fees per consumer account per day Charging non-sufficient funds feeds for instantaneously declined electronic transactions Charging multiple non-sufficient funds or overdraft fees for the same transaction, including when a merchant resubmits a declined transaction Charging a "sustained," "continuous" or "daily" fee for each day an overdraft balance is not repaid Charging double fees to cover an overdraft, such as one fee for automatically transferring funds from another account and a second fee for the overdraft itself Processing electronic debit transactions in a manner intended to maximize the number of overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees Charging an overdraft fee for an electronic transaction when the consumer's account indicates sufficient funds at the time the transaction was initiated Emily Barnes reports on consumer-related issues for the USA TODAY Network's New York Connect Team, focusing on scam and recall-related topics. Follow her on X and Instagram @byemilybarnes. Get in touch at ebarnes@ This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: New laws in NY to make it easier to cancel subscriptions, boost privacy protections
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Block agrees to pay $40M New York penalty
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter. Payments technology company Block agreed to pay a $40 million civil monetary fine Thursday as part of an agreement to resolve claims brought by the New York State Department of Financial Services over lax oversight of its financial services. In particular, the state cited Block's Cash App peer-to-peer payments tool as not satisfying state requirements for anti-money laundering, bank secrecy and know-your-customer compliance programs, according to the action disclosed by the financial services department. Oakland, California-based Block, which is led by entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, operates in New York under the terms of money transmitter license and BitLicense it has in that state. The company also owns Square, a business that enables payments processing for merchants. In January, Block agreed to pay $255 million to federal and state regulators for deficiencies in its oversight of its peer-to-peer payments tool Cash App and to compensate users who became victims of fraud. Specifically, the company agreed at that time to pay the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a $55 million penalty and to compensate victims with up to $120 million, according to a press release from the federal agency. It also included Block paying $80 million to resolve similar allegations brought against it by 48 states. As part of examinations performed by New York regulators for the period covering from April 2021 to September 2022, the state found that Block failed compliance program requirements on many fronts. As part of its own probe in 2022, Block discovered some 8,359 Cash App accounts 'linked to a Russian criminal network,' the order said. The state gave Block credit for quickly closing and 'denylisting' the accounts and starting up new controls in response. Those failures included, among other items, insufficient monitoring of transactions; a backlog of processing suspicious activity reports that created a 'high-risk environment vulnerable to exploitation by criminal actors;' and inadequate alerts for notification of digital wallet transactions that might be connected to terrorism. 'The policies, procedures, and processes at Block did not keep pace with the significant growth the Company experienced immediately prior to and during the period covered by the MT Exam and VC Exam, resulting in Block's inability to fully comply with its obligation to effectively monitor, and thereafter report, the transactions being conducted on its platforms for suspected money laundering and other illicit criminal activity,' New York's financial services department said in the consent order. Block said in a statement Thursday that it strives 'to be a leader in promoting safety across the financial system and upholding responsible business practices.' It added: 'We are committed to continued investment in safety, and full compliance with both the letter and the spirit of the law as our program continually evolves.' The department noted that Block had 2023 revenue of about $22 billion, and that its assets more than doubled between 2021 and 2023, jumping from $15 billion to $34 billion. It also pointed out that Cash App collects non-public information on about 54 million active accounts every month. 'It is critical that Block maintain a robust cybersecurity program to protect its own information systems and the consumer NPI stored in them,' the order said. 'Management oversight, as well as ensuring that all cybersecurity policies are sufficient and robust are critical components of the cybersecurity requirements contained in both the Virtual Currency Regulation and the Cybersecurity Regulations.' Other federal regulators had also been contemplating action against the company last year, according to a lawyer representing whistle-blowers who filed complaints against Block with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, as well as with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The whistle-blowers alleged that Cash App's user identity verification methods aren't sufficient to prevent fraudulent activity, NBC News reported last year. The New York order requires Block to hire an 'independent monitor,' selected by the state, to review the company's compliance programs and 'remediate any deficiencies' for at least a year, and perhaps longer. The monitor will report back to the state on its findings, the order said.
