National Australia Bank has removed a controversial clause in a document issued to retailers that advised them they were unable to surcharge customers on contactless transactions. As reported in Banking Day on 21 June, NAB has been advising users of its merchant terminals since at least 2019 that surcharging was not available on contactless transactions. “Pre-authorisations and surcharging are not available with contactless transactions,” the bank told merchants in a guide to its merchant contracts. The longstanding clause, which possibly breached the Reserve Bank’s surcharging standards that allow retailers to recoup the cost of accepting contactless debit and credit card transactions, has been withdrawn by the bank. A revised reference guide to NAB merchant agreements posted on the bank’s website earlier this month does not include the controversial clause. It is unclear whether the errant or potentially misleading advice from the bank had any impact on NAB business customers using merchant terminals. NAB merchants who followed the guidance contained in the guide could potentially have foregone opportunities to retrieve acceptance costs for at least four years. A NAB spokesperson in June declined to comment on the errant guidance given to merchant customers, but insisted that surcharging capability was embedded in terminals issued by the bank. “NAB terminals support merchants in applying surcharges on transactions via a few simple steps,” the spokesperson said at the time.??“Thousands of merchants have surcharging enabled.”