Updated Jan. 11, 2021 4:49 pm ET
SYDNEY Interest charges have been one of the defining features of credit cards for decades and so when an employee at a big Australian bank suggested getting rid of them, he was taking a risk.
“He said, ‘Well, what about a no-interest credit card?’ ” said Rachel Slade, personal banking group executive at National Australia Bank Ltd. , recalling a feedback session at one of the lender’s Melbourne offices. “And everyone’s like, ‘What? That’s not how a credit card works.’ ”
Worried about dwindling credit-card usage during the coronavirus pandemic and the rapid rise of startups like Australia’s Afterpay Ltd. and Sweden’s Klarna Bank AB that allow consumers to pay for goods in installments, some banks are rethinking what has been one of their most lucrative businesses.
China is testing a digital yuan, aiming to accelerate the replacement of cash and increase state control in a society where digital payments via WeChat Pay and Alipay are already the norm. Here is what Beijing’s new system looks like and how it would work.
How the UAE s new regulations tighten up regime for cryptoassets arabianbusiness.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from arabianbusiness.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
UAE: new regulations for stored value facilities and cryptoassets
Out-Law News | 14 Dec 2020 | 10:12 am | 3 min. read
Stored Value Facilities (SVFs)
The UAE Central Bank’s SVF Regulation (85 page / 1.9MB PDF), released in early November 2020, repeals and replaces the 2016 Regulatory Framework for Stored Values and Electronic Payment Systems (SVF Regulations). The new SVF Regulations substantially tighten up the existing regime and aim to ensure that all SVFs which are issued and operated in the UAE do so in a secure, sound and efficient manner.
Issuing and operating SVF in the UAE requires a prior license from the UAE Central Bank (CB) unless a firm is operating a single-purpose SVF. An example of a single-purpose SVF is a prepaid telephone card, which can only be used to pay for telephone services provided by the issuer. Marie Chowdhry, of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law, said: All other exclusions have been omitted from the regulations, meaning th