Brussels, 26/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Following a complaint from a source it has not identified, the European Commission opened an investigation on Monday 26 September to determine whether the standardisation process for e-payments by the European Payments Council (EPC) was restricting competition by preventing new players or service providers not connected with a bank from entering the market. Reuters reports that the Commission suspects several multinational banks that are members of the EPC, such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC and BBVA, want to prevent new players from entering the market and are making the standardisation process onerous for this purpose.
EPC is the European banking industry's coordination and decision-making body about payments, which supports the creation of a self-regulated, integrated payments market in Europe through the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA). “Standards promote interoperability and competition, but we need to ensure that the standardisation process does not unnecessarily restrict opportunities for non-participants.” (FG/transl.fl)