Brussels, 20/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - No sooner said than done. Following the announcement on Monday by EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier of new retail banking legislation, on Tuesday 20 March the European Commission announced the launch of a public consultation exercise on bank charges, changing bank accounts and opening basic bank accounts (see EUROPE 10577). Interested parties have until Tuesday 12 June to make their views known, which will help the Commission in its preparation of draft legislation in the second half of the year.
In the consultation document, the Commission says that consumers should be able to access retail banking throughout the European Union irrespective of which member state they live in, and should find it easy to change their bank, even in another country. This all requires the existence of comparable, transparency about bank account charges, but even measures at national level in recent years have taken differing approaches and made little progress. Consumers therefore have varying protection in different countries and this patchwork of rules, regulations and codes of conduct makes it difficult for people to open bank accounts abroad.
With a view to improving transparency and making it easier to compare bank charges, the Commission sets out a number of possible methods, which might be made compulsory, such as websites managed by the public authorities, simulations of standard costs to be provided by banks and polls carried out by consumer groups. Since the end of 2009, banking in the EU has been using, on a voluntary basis, common standards for bank account mobility, but these do not cover bank cards, overdrafts or savings accounts. The Commission is examining the option of making the common standards compulsory throughout the EU. In 2010, some 30 million adults in the EU did not have any bank accounts, between 6 and 7 million of them because banks refused to open an account, reports British organisation CSES (see EUROPE 10421). The Commission says that many member states have not yet provided it with information about measures they have taken in response to its recommendation (which came into force in January 2012) on provision of basic bank accounts. The Commission is examining the most appropriate level at which to act in this connection - national or European. (MB/transl.fl)