The European Parliament and the EU Council are expected to agree on the proposal to harmonise the costs of cross-border payments in euros across the EU (see EUROPE 11991), according to a European source, on Tuesday evening, 11 December.
As a reminder, the major difference of opinion between Parliament (see EUROPE 12129) and the Council (see EUROPE 12050) concerned the alignment of the costs of cross-border payments made in currencies other than the euro, as requested by MEPs (see EUROPE 12085).
The European Commission, like the Council, was of the opinion that such an extension would not only be “too cumbersome”, but would also have few advantages, since the proposal already covered 80% of cross-border transactions in countries outside the euro area.
Parliament also wanted more transparency on the 'currency conversion' aspect (see EUROPE 12130) and in particular requested that comparable real-time information on currency conversion fees could be provided to users wishing to make a card payment before the start of the payment transaction.
And that is where a common ground could have been found. If Parliament were to agree to abandon the extension to cross-border payments made in currencies other than the euro, the Council could in turn make concessions and move in its direction towards greater transparency.
During this third 'trilogue', the European Commission presented two options to the co-legislators in order to complete the negotiations, according to a working document consulted by EUROPE.
The first option would introduce into the text an obligation for payment service providers to inform their customers of the rates applicable not only in the general terms and conditions of their contracts, but also to make this information available on their website.
Service providers would also be required to remind their customers of the currency conversion charges applicable when a card payment is made in another currency, by SMS, email or notification via the mobile banking application.
The second option would be to allow the Commission to adopt regulatory technical standards (RTS) developed by the European Banking Authority, which would specify appropriate methods to inform the payer of the charges applicable to the different currency conversion options.
At the time of going to press, interinstitutional negotiations were ongoing and the agreement had not yet been confirmed. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)