Importance of going beyond regulatory compliance

Technology has in many ways outpaced the speed with which regulatory entities can pass new legislation to govern and control several markets. Among the most widely feared and discussed industries to experience this type of occurrence have been those of payment processing and online banking. However, one legal term that has proven to protect merchants and users of online banking from fraudulent attacks has been "commercially reasonable." This clause in the Uniform Commercial Code was used to rule against one bank in a suit with a Maine-based development company, leading to a granting of remuneration for the latter. Earlier this summer, though, Bank Info Security reported that this might not be the best precedent to set for similar cases in the future. According to the news provider, the development firm - Patco - had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from fraudulent ACH cards and wire transfer activities. The author of this story purported that the term "reasonable" in this context is highly ambiguous, and could not always serve as the best solution. Regardless of this specific case, this lawsuit further illustrated the importance of going beyond regulatory compliance requirements, and reaching for an even more advanced set of payment processing security best practices.