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Royal Bank of Scotland early next year will begin charging cardholders in the United Arab Emirates a monthly maintenance fee on its credit cards. In a statement sent to cardholders in the U.A.E., the bank blames market conditions for the establishment of the fee. The bank says it will charge a monthly fee of 10 dirhams (US$3 or 2 euros) beginning on 1 Feb. A spokesperson for Dubai Bank tells PaymentsSource that their cards already carry similar fees. A spokesperson for U.A.E.-based RakBank says the financial institution has no plans to introduce such fees.

Australia-based energy firm AGL has decided not to charge its customers for paying by credit cards after it faced ire from the country‚s top regulator, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The Energy and Water Ombudsman criticized AGL on its plans to charge customers an undisclosed amount for using their credit cards to pay bills. In a public filing made by the ombudsman to Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, the regulator asked whether AGL bills would be reduced for those who did not pay by credit card if the company was to start charging those who paid on credit. „As costs associated with administering credit card payments may previously have been a component of the general retail costs, can we expect to see an equivalent reduction in these costs if this fee is to be introduced?,‰ the ombudsman asked. Immediate comment from AGL was not available.

The alternative-payment processor mPayy Inc. on Thursday announced a mobile payment app for handsets that run the Android operating system from Google Inc.

A U.S. District Court in New Jersey last week rejected Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent VeriFone Holdings Inc. from soliciting the payment processor's merchants who use VeriFone point-of-sale terminals, according to the terminal maker. Heartland is seeking to stop VeriFone from promoting a Web site where merchants may register for free terminal support directly through VeriFone to begin after Dec. 31, when VeriFone will stop providing Heartland with support. Heartland contends it can continue to support the terminals without VeriFone’s help. Judge Mary K. Cooper denied Heartland's request in an opinion dated Dec. 23, noting contradictory claims Heartland had made regarding its ability to provide ongoing service to clients using VeriFone systems, according to VeriFone. “The ruling means that despite Heartland’s considerable efforts, VeriFone can continue to offer direct support to Heartland merchants for VeriFone systems,” states a VeriFone spokesperson. Heartland is “disappointed” the judge denied the processor’s request for a preliminary injunction, the company said in a statement. “Heartland is considering its options with the circuit court. This opinion is a preliminary ruling, and Heartland intends to pursue damages in its state court action,” the statement said. The two companies are suing each other over a disagreement stemming from Heartland's development of an advanced encryption terminal. San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone alleges Heartland is infringing on one of its patents; Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland claims VeriFone is engaging in unfair trade practices.

The number of small-business owners who think the economy is getting worse declined this month compared with November, according to new survey data Discover Financial Services released today. Discover’s Small Business Watch improved slightly in December to 77 from 76.5 in November. The Watch is a monthly report measuring the relative economic confidence of 750 randomly selected small-business owners based on their responses to six questions. Its creators established a base index of 100 when the Watch began in August 2006. The number of small-business owners who think the economy is getting worse fell in December to 49% from 53% in November. Some 24% of small-business owners see no changes in the economy, up from 16% who said so in November. Some 25% of respondents see the economy improving, down from 28% in November, and 2% are not sure. Some 51% of small-business owners have experienced cash-flow problems within the last three months, down from 52% who said so last month, while 45% have experienced no cash-flow problems up from 41% who had no cash-flow problems in November, and 4% are not sure. Some 74% of respondents said the recession has reduced their retirement savings, while 19% said the recession has had no impact and 6% have seen their retirement savings increase.

While securitization of residential mortgages that lack government backing remains moribund, credit card and other consumer lenders have issued about the same amount of asset-backed bonds this year as they did in 2008 thanks to a federal rescue.

First Data Corp. has acquired an 81% stake in ICICI Bank’s point-of-sale terminal business for US$80 million, a source from the India-based bank tells PaymentsSource.com.

Consumers in the Midwest initiated 10.8% more transactions from Dec. 1 to 14 than during the same period in 2008, according to a First Data Corp. SpendTrend 2009 Holiday Special Edition report. The report is based on credit, debit and electronic benefits transfer transactions First Data processed for its merchant customers. The Atlanta-based payment processor says the Midwest also led U.S. regions in sales-volume growth at 9.3%. First Data did not provide specific transaction or spend totals. Transaction volume in New England grew by 8.5% to rank second, though the region had the fourth-largest sales-volume growth at 6.5%. Transaction volume grew by 8.4% in the Mid-Atlantic region, while sales volume increased by 6.9%. In the South, transaction volume grew 7.5%, while sales volume grew by 6.4%. Consumers in the West conducted 7.2% more transactions and spent 6.6% more. Transaction volume in the Southwest grew 5.7%, while sales volume rose 5.8%, First Data says. The payment processor says transaction volume at value merchants, defined as discount merchants such as Walmart Stores Inc., grew by 14.9%, while sales rose 13.5%. Petroleum-sales volume outpaced all other merchant categories with a 43.7% increase, while transaction volume rose 13.5%. The data illustrate that consumers remained focused on value, which resulted in the large transaction volume increases in petroleum transactions and among value merchants, according to First Data. First Data representatives were not available for additional comment.

Consumers in the Southeast region of England are more likely to have plastic payment cards than are consumers in other parts of the country, suggest survey data from the UK Payments Council, a trade group that helps set strategy for payments in the United Kingdom. The council based its findings on surveys of 3,859 adult consumers it conducted earlier this year. Ninety-seven percent of respondents from the Southeast reported having payment cards, while only 86% of respondents from West Midlands region said they did, making that region the lowest in England for plastic card ownership, the council says in a statement. Fifty-nine percent of consumers on the Southeast reported using mobile or Internet banking, the highest rate among England’s regions, while only 46% of consumers in the Northeast did, the lowest rate. Consumers in East Anglia make the fewest ATM withdrawals–51 per person each year, the council says. In general, more consumers in the southern parts of England have payment cards than do consumers in the northern parts, the council adds.

Residents of the Asia-Pacific region cite changes in salaries, job security and cost-of-living expenses as their top financial concerns entering 2010, the results of a recent Visa Inc. survey suggest. Of the 5,520 survey respondents across 10 nations, 48% cited changes in the cost of living as their top concern, while 44% cited increasing their savings and the same percentage cited job security as potential troubles in 2010. Within the region, however, differences emerge. In China, respondents cited payment card fraud, increasing savings and job security as their top three concerns. Hong Kong residents said they expect changes in their salaries, job security and cost-of-living expenses to cause them worry in 2010. In Taiwan, the value of consumer retirement funds, changes in salaries and job security ranked as the top three concerns for next year. Among respondents in Japan, the top concerns were increasing savings, changes in salaries and cost-of-living expenses. Visa did not provide individual nation results. The survey, conducted in August and September, also canvassed consumers in Australia, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and New Zealand.

The Bank of Israel has ordered Israel Credit Cards-Cal Ltd. to compensate customers who failed to receive proper information about relatively high interest rates and monthly repayments for credit cards, the country’s central bank says in a statement. The ruling applies primarily to customers who canceled or stopped using “Active” cards within six months of first use. Central bank officials say they issued the order after receiving complaints from the issuer’s customers. The issuer did not provide immediate comment. Active cards carry an average annual interest rate of 14.4%, the central bank says. Other cards typically carry lower rates, the bank says. Customers who failed to contact the issuer to negotiate card-repayment details were “subject to a minimum repayment determined by the company, and the remainder [would] be carried into the coming months at a high interest rate,” the central bank says in a statement. “Furthermore, the rate of interest charged on the credit cards was only brought to the attention of the customers at a later stage and only after they used the card for the first time.” According to the bank, the card company informed its customers about the interest rate only at the time of their first monthly statement and not before they used their cards. The central bank did not say how much customers will be compensated. The issuer must publish more information about interest rates, the amount of monthly repayments and dates of monthly payments, the central bank says.

Merchants processing from 1 million to 6 million MasterCard transactions no longer have to meet a Dec. 31, 2010, deadline to have a third-party security assessor perform an onsite assessment of their payment networks for compliance with Payment Card Industry data security standards unless they want to do so voluntarily, according to a MasterCard spokesperson. This is a reversal from a policy MasterCard contained in an Aug. 17 Site Data Protection program document that would have required such so-called Level 2 merchants to pay for a qualified security assessor to audit their compliance by Dec. 31, 2010. Now MasterCard has moved the compliance deadline to June 30, 2011, and made the onsite assessment optional. Level 2 merchants will be required annually to complete a self-assessment questionnaire and perform quarterly network-security scans of their systems. Merchant employees completing the self-assessments must have completed Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council training and pass the council’s accreditation program, according to a MasterCard Dec. 15 Global Security Bulletin. The Aug. 17 summary of changes to MasterCard’s Site Data Protection program said the earlier change was designed to aid the “consistent application and implementation of [data security-standard] requirements.”

Capitalizing on the gold-investing craze, a U.S. startup this week said it is seeking banks interested in issuing a consumer credit card backed by gold bullion. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Gold Solutions Marketing Inc. says its new Gold Bullion Credit Card would be secured by credit lines tied to cardholders’ gold. Prospective customers with gold may ship their coins or bullion, ensuring it is registered and insured with United Parcel Service, to Gold Solutions Marketing, which would store it as collateral in a secure vault. The company then would provide customers with a line of credit equal to the value of their gold in the vault. The card “could unlock millions of dollars in capital” as credit card issuers tighten credit lines for traditional credit cards, says Jeffrey Silver, Gold Solutions Marketing vice president of marketing and card development. “Gold trading and investing has always been popular, but during the last 24 months it has been a big trend. Our product would enable people to continue investing in gold while using that value as a source of revolving credit,” Silver says. Gold Solutions Marketing has contracted with CardWorks Inc., a credit card services company, to issue Visa or MasterCard credit cards through participating banks. Gold Solutions has not yet announced any banks or an official launch date for the card, but it is gathering the names of interested customers through a Web site. One analyst says a gold bullion-secured credit card sounds more like a marketing gimmick than a new lending strategy. One has to wonder “why a prospective borrower would care if the credit card loan assets are backed by gold or plain old U.S. greenbacks,” says Scott Strumello, an associate at Auriemma Consulting Group. “In the end you can still borrow against (these assets), and the result is the same.”

Monitise PLC, the British mobile banking vendor, says it plans a broader push next year into mobile retailing, initially in the United Kingdom, then across Europe and in the United States.

Banks are scrambling to find new footing as lawmakers and regulators undermine one of the industry's profit foundations: consumer fees.

Financial institutions of all types are facing regulatory changes on a scale not seen in decades. These changes touch upon everything from mortgage lending to soliciting college students for credit cards.

MoneyGram International Inc. said Monday that it is working with Smart Communications Inc., a unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., to launch a mobile phone money transfer service in the Philippines, reports American Banker. MoneyGram agents in San Diego and Hong Kong are testing the service starting this week. Consumers in those locations can visit agents to send money to people in the Philippines that have a Smart Money account on their mobile phones. MoneyGram, of Minneapolis, separately has more than 7,000 locations in the Philippines and allows users there to receive payments in U.S. dollars. "This partnership gives MoneyGram access to more than 39 million Smart subscribers in the Philippines and extends the benefits of our safe and reliable money transfer services to a new category of consumers," John Hempsey, executive vice president for MoneyGram's Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, said in a press release Monday.

HSBC Merchant Services, a United Kingdom-based subsidiary of Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc., announced today that the BHF-BSSA Group Trade Association will refer its 7,000 small and midsize independent retailers to HSBC for their payment card processing. The British Shops & Stores Association, a 3,300-member group that merged in September with the 3,700-member British Hardware Federation to form the trade group, previously had referred its members to HSBC Merchant Services. The UK-based trade group says on its Web site that merchants using HSBC Merchant Services will get a processing rate of 1.195%. Merchants that switch to HSBC Merchant Services also receive three months of free payment terminal rental, according to the trade group.

Philippines officials expect soon to release a set of implementing rules for the use of alternative electronic devices, such as mobile phones, to pay taxes and to conduct other government transactions, according to an official at the country’s Department of Trade and Industry. The rules would alleviate the need to go to a bank to make such payments. The official, who requested anonymity, says the department is finalizing the guidelines. Under the draft proposal, government agencies that have an e-payment facility could charge clients a fixed fee when using a mobile phone or other alternative-payment channel. “Once established, these rules will guide government agencies on how to accept payments from credit cards, cash cards and mobile wallets …,” the official adds. According to the official, work on these rules began in earnest in October 2008, and the department expects to finish the task in January. “A public hearing was held last week in this regard to take feedback from industry participants,” he says. “The completed set of rules, if passed, will be then issued as an administrative order by the [Department of Trade and Industry] and the Department of Finance.” The rules would take effect during the first quarter. Philippines government agencies already are supporting online transactions, though the final payments are made offline, according to a local news report.

Banks in Sri Lanka will reduce their credit card interest rates, an official from the 15-member Payment Card Industry Association of Sri Lanka says. “This decision has been taken after the Central Bank of Sri Lanka expressed concern last week that card issuers were not bringing down rates even though there was some margin available,” he says. According to the official, interest rates on credit cards have remained between 33% and 48% since December 2008. “The central bank asked for banks to lower rates to between 24% and 36%,” he adds. “Banks will follow this suggestion and bring down rates to a minimum of 24% to maximum of 36% beginning this January.” Sri Lankan banks issue some 1 million credit cards.