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E-Commerce, Cyber, And Electronic Payment System Risks: Lessons From Paypal, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

By now, almost without exception, every business has an internet presence, and is likely engaged in e-commerce. What are the major risks perceived by those engaged in e-commerce and electronic payment systems? What potential risks, if they become reality, may cause substantial increases in operating costs or threaten the very survival of the enterprise? This article utilizes the relevant annual report disclosures from eBay (parent of PayPal), along with other eBay and PayPal documents, as a potentially powerful teaching device. Most of the descriptive language to follow is excerpted directly from eBay’s regulatory filings. My additions include weaving these materials …

E-Commerce And Electronic Payment System Risks: Lessons From Paypal, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

What are the major risks perceived by those engaged in e-commerce and electronic payment systems? What development risks, if they become reality, may cause substantial increases in operating costs or threaten the very survival of the enterprise? This article utilizes the relevant annual report disclosures from eBay (parent of PayPal), along with other eBay and PayPal documents, as a potentially powerful teaching device. Most of the descriptive language to follow is excerpted directly from eBay’s regulatory filings. My additions include weaving these materials into a logical presentation and providing supplemental sources for those who desire a deeper look (usually in …

Virtual Currencies: Bitcoin & What Now After Liberty Reserve, Silk Road, And Mt. Gox?, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

During 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department evoked the first use of the 2001 Patriot Act to exclude virtual currency provider Liberty Reserve from the U.S. financial system. This article will discuss: the regulation of virtual currencies; cybercrimes and payment systems; darknets, Tor and the “deep web;” Bitcoin; Liberty Reserve; Silk Road and Mt. Gox. Virtual currencies have quickly become a reality, gaining significant traction in a very short period of time, and are evolving rapidly. Virtual currencies present particularly difficult law enforcement challenges because of their: ability to transcend national borders in the fraction of a second; unique jurisdictional issues; …

E-Commerce And Electronic Payment System Risks: Lessons From Paypal, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

What are the major risks perceived by those engaged in e-commerce and electronic payment systems? What development risks, if they become reality, may cause substantial increases in operating costs or threaten the very survival of the enterprise? This article utilizes the relevant annual report disclosures from eBay (parent of PayPal), along with other eBay and PayPal documents, as a potentially powerful teaching device. Most of the descriptive language to follow is excerpted directly from eBay’s regulatory filings. My additions include weaving these materials into a logical presentation and providing supplemental sources for those who desire a deeper look (usually in …

A Deposit Substitute For Post Dodd-Frank Regulatory Policy Assessments Of Emergent Payments: A Taxonomical Approach, Eniola Akindemowo

Eniola Akindemowo

Existing stored value products (SVPs) are early prototypes of what payments and money will become: digital, disintermediated, and, possibly, neither state- nor bank-issued. The formulation of stored value regulatory policy in the U.S. has been a complicated, slow process however, producing a piecemeal scheme of broadly uneven regulations. Suffice it to say that the result of several short-term fixes has been to postpone looming inefficiencies and highlight limitations stemming from inconsistencies inherent in their use.

Past regulatory efforts have thrown a startling fact into sharp relief: The relevance of deposits, the hallowed central concept of payments jurisprudence, is undermined in …

Recalibrating Abstract Payments Regulatory Policy: A Retrospective After The Dodd-Frank Act, Eniola Akindemowo

Eniola Akindemowo

The future efficiency of the payments system is at stake. Existing stored value products (SVPs e.g. gift cards and gift card apps) are early prototypes of what payments and money will become – digital, dis-intermediated, and possibly, neither state nor bank issued. These products have defied sustained efforts to pigeonhole them into traditional categories. Significantly, past regulatory efforts have thrown a startling fact into sharp relief: the relevance of deposits – the hallowed central concept of payments jurisprudence – is being undermined in SVPs and emergent payments. What this means is that the role of deposits – the lynch pin …