With the Council having adopted its position in record time in June of this year (see EUROPE 12050), over at the European Parliament, rapporteur Eva Maydell (EPP, Bulgaria) unveiled her draft report at the end of July on the proposal to harmonise the costs of cross-border payments in euros across the EU (see EUROPE 11991).
Readers may recall that one of the aims of the regulation is to ensure the full transparency of currency conversion - an aim she fully supports, but for which she has an alternative proposal.
Maydell considers in particular that the European Banking Authority (EBA) should not be asked to develop technical regulatory standards to govern these practices.
“Leaving the detailed standardisation to a secondary legislation that could lead to regulatory uncertainty in the market”, she explained, adding that the cost of implementation will be far higher “than if the process is market-driven”.
Similarly, she considers that putting a limit on conversion costs could damage the market.
The Commission proposed to ask the EBA to set up a provisional limit setting out a maximum level of all costs authorised for currency conversion services that can be applied to a payment transaction during a transitional period.
However, the rapporteur argues, such a system could be likened to price regulation and would run counter to free competition.
Therefore, to ensure the transparency of these practices, she is proposing instead to reduce the period between the date of entry into force of the regulation and the application of the terms for currency conversion to 12 months, from the 36 proposed by the Commission.
This, she explains, would make it possible temporarily to limit conversion costs and would encourage the market to put forward solutions that would make it possible to avoid asking the EBA for standardisation.
She also suggests adding a number of references to the payment services directive, which already sets out an obligation to inform the consumer of all charges, along with more detailed indications on how to present the consumer with the full range of currency conversion options.
The draft report will be debated on 29 August by the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)