MASTERCARD is set to announce that from January 1 providers of its cards will face a charge of 25 US cents each time they are used outside Hong Kong.
The company said the tenfold increase - the first rise on this service in 20 years - would apply to members of the association in the Asia-Pacific region. Banks are expected to pass the higher costs on to their MasterCard holders.
Timothy Malloy, MasterCard's senior vice-president of strategic planning in the Asia-Pacific region, said: 'The increase will apply to international authorisations run on our network. The authorisation is 25 cents and it will be charged to the banks using the service.' Mr Malloy defended claims from competitors that the increase will significantly boost revenues at the expense of international travellers.
He said: 'These transactions represent about 10 per cent of the total authorisations - or two per cent of revenues - in Asia. If there is a concern by banks then we need to make them understand the very small percentage of transactions it applies to.' The MasterCard service is available through 15 Hong Kong banks and has 290 million users worldwide.
Mr Malloy said the increase would typically apply to large ticket items - such as hotel bills and flights - and should not significantly add to costs of using the service.
MasterCard's main rival, Visa, disputed the claim that the increase would apply only to a small number of transactions.
