RBS Stops Processing Online Gambling Transactions

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has advised that they will cease processing online gambling transactions.

Following their recently announced plans to merge with Dutch bank ABM Amro, the RBS will continue to accept online gambling operators as customers, will no longer process transactions involving online gambling.

The new policy s believed to be tied to the ABN AMRO merger. ABN AMRO and other banks in the Netherlands have been directed by Dutch Minister of Justice, Ernst Hirsch Ballin to block online gambling transactions or face prosecution.

The directive is currently being scrutinized as by the European Commission as a breach of EU law - more specifically EU Member State obligations not to restrict services. But that is another story altogether.

Given the RBS's financial woes and enormous balance sheet holes resulting from sub-prime exposures, it would seem unlikely that the new policy that will result in lots business and revenues was not influenced by external forces.